Mitigating Corrosion Damage in Steel Employing Biobased Erythritol and Xylitol as Corrosion Inhibitions

Abstract

Salt-based deicers, while effective for clearing snow, can cause severe damage to concrete and induce rebar corrosion. This research endeavors to mitigate the corrosion damage to steel in a chloride environment by employing biobased erythritol and xylitol as corrosion inhibitors. Derived from corn, these polyols exhibit the necessary chemical composition and structure, which favor their adsorption onto the steel surface to inhibit corrosion. In this study, steel specimens were subjected to a recurring flow of traditional deicing solution (23% by weight of NaCl) containing various weight fractions (0.5%, 1%, 2%, and 3%) of each polyol for 48 h, followed by potentiodynamic polarization tests to measure the corrosion rates. Tafel extrapolation, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction revealed that both erythritol and xylitol are mixed-type corrosion inhibitors that physisorbed on the steel specimens and significantly reduced the corrosion rates by a maximum of 88% and 93%, respectively. The microstructural and chemical investigation confirms the reduction in the formation of corrosion products in 23% NaCl solution containing polyols, which strongly supports the effectiveness of polyols as corrosion inhibitors.