Two series of eco-friendly nonionic anionic
surfactants based on itaconic acid and 1, 6 hexane diol were
synthesized. The chemical structures of the prepared surfactant
were confirmed by FTIR and 1H NMR spectroscopy.
The prepared surfactants were evaluated to prevent the corrosion
of aluminum in 1.0 M HCl solution by electrochemical
and chemical methods. The data obtained showed that
the prepared compounds have good inhibition efficiency
(IE%) even at 10−5 M concentrations and act as mixed-type
inhibitors, they do not affect the mechanism of the electrode
processes, as well as the IE% increase by increasing
the concentrations of the inhibitors, immersion time, and
hydrophilic chain length. The high inhibition efficiency is
due to the adsorption of the inhibitors molecules on the
metal surface and the formation of a protective film. The
surface activities of these compounds were also investigated
and were correlated to their inhibition efficiencies
and chemical structure. Through studying biodegradability
of the synthesized surfactants we find that they are readily
biodegradable in the environment and thus they are considered
as eco-friendly corrosion inhibitors. Finally, the effect
of the addition of these compounds on the aluminum surface
was identified by atomic force microscopy (AFM)
technique.