Evaluation of Piper sarmentosum extract's corrosion inhibitive effects and adsorption characteristics for the corrosion protection of mild steel in 0.5 M HCl

The current study is focused on the inhibitive effects and adsorption characteristics of Piper sarmentosum extract (PSE) to mitigate the corrosion of mild steel in 0.5 M HCl medium. In addition, the study involved the analysis of the antioxidant activity of Piper sarmentosum. The applicability of PSE as a corrosion inhibitor was tested by employing electrochemical techniques namely; potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and electrochemical noise measurement (ENM). Mild steel's corroding nature was investigated at 303-333 K temperature range to acquire the influence of temperature on corrosion. It was revealed that the Piper sarmentosum extract operated as a mixed type corrosion inhibitor yielding highest inhibition efficiency of 92.18% with the incorporation of 1000 ppm. In view of SEM analysis, mild steel panel treated with PSE showed a significantly improved surface condition, i.e., a much smoother surface morphology.