Lady’s Mantle Flower as a Biodegradable Plant-Based Corrosion Inhibitor for CO2 Carbon Steel Corrosion

Due to issues with the corrosion problem in the petroleum industry and the use of less ecologically acceptable corrosion inhibitors, great emphasis, within research on corrosion inhibitors, is now being put on green corrosion inhibitors (GCIs). In this study, Lady’s mantle flower extract (LMFE) has been observed as a plant-based GCI for carbon steel in a simulated CO2-saturated brine solution. The effectiveness of the inhibitor in static and flow conditions has been determined using potentiodynamic polarization with Tafel extrapolation and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). In static conditions, the inhibitor has been tested at concentrations from 1 g/L to 5 g/L with an increment of 1 g/L per measurement, while, in dynamic (flow) conditions, the inhibitor has been tested at concentrations from 3 g/L to 6 g/L with an increment of 1 g/L per measurement. All measurements were performed at room temperature. EIS and potentiodynamic polarization methods showed that LMFE achieves maximum effectiveness in protecting carbon steel from corrosion when added at a concentration of 4 g/L in static conditions and at a concentration of 5 g/L in flow conditions. The test methods proved that the inhibitory effectiveness of LMFE is greater than 90% in both test conditions (static and flow). The inhibitor efficiency was attributed to the adsorption of LMFE on the carbon steel surface, which was demonstrated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A biodegradability of 0.96 and a toxicity of 19.34% for LMFE were determined. The conducted laboratory tests indicate that LMFE could be used as an effective corrosion inhibitor for CO2 carbon steel corrosion.