Theory of Organic Corrosion Inhibitors

By considering adsorption processes of organic compounds as being determined by the electronic distribution in the "anchoring" group of an adsorbate, a correlation has been derived between adsorption measurements and Hammett‐like substituent constants through the use of Linear Free Energy Relations (LFER). The analysis is extended to corrosion inhibitors by assuming that the mechanism of inhibition by organic molecules is chemisorption and that the energetics of the corrosion process per se are unaffected by the addition of substituents on the parent compound.