Comparative studies on the corrosion inhibition efficacy of ethanolic extracts of date palm leaves and seeds on carbon steel corrosion in 15% HCl solution

The work reports on the study carried out to comparatively assess the corrosion inhibition efficacy of crude ethanolic extracts of date palm leaves and seeds on X60 carbon steel corrosion in 15% HCl solution at 25–60 °C. The corrosion inhibition studies was carried out using weight loss and electrochemical (potentiodynamic polarization and linear polarization resistance) techniques. Preliminary phytochemical screening was performed in order to determine the phytoconstituents present in the crude extracts. The influence of extractive solvents on the corrosion inhibition performance of the extracts was also investigated. It is found that the crude extracts of both date palm leaves and seeds contain saponins, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides and reducing sugars. Tannins is only present in the leaves and absent in the seeds while anthraquinones is absent in both extracts. The crude ethanolic extracts inhibited the corrosion of X60 steel in the aggressive 15% HCl solution with the leaves extract showing superior performance. Inhibition efficiency increased with increase in concentration of the extracts and temperature. Potentiodynamic polarization results reveal that the extracts function as mixed type inhibitors. Corrosion inhibition occurs by virtue of adsorption of components of the extract on the steel surface and was found to follow Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. On the influence of the extractive solvents on the corrosion inhibition performance, the order of inhibition efficiency at 60 °C follows the trend DPLAE (73.6%) > DPLEE (62.5%) > DPSAE (59.9%) > DPSEE (55.9%) with the optimum extract concentration (2000 ppm) studied.