Green Inhibitors for Corrosion of Metals

The ability of electrochemical processes to break compounds down into elements or to create new compounds can be destructive as well as productive. Corrosion is an all too common result of electrochemical reactions between materials and substances in their environment. Corrosion is a dangerous and extremely costly problem. Because of it, buildings and bridges can collapse, oil pipelines break, chemical plants leak, and bathrooms flood. Corroded electrical contacts can cause fires and other problems, corroded medical implants may lead to blood poisoning, and air pollution has caused corrosion damage to works of art around the world. Corrosion threatens the safe disposal of radioactive waste that must be stored in containers for tens of thousands of years. The most common kinds of corrosion result from electrochemical reactions. General corrosion occurs when most or all of the atoms on the same metal surface are oxidized, damaging the entire surface. Most metals are easily oxidized they tend to lose electrons to oxygen and other substances in the air or in water. As oxygen is reduced gains electrons , it forms an oxide with the metal. When reduction and oxidation take place on different kinds of metal in contact with one another, the process is called galvanic corrosion. In electrolytic corrosion, which occurs most commonly in electronic equipment, water or other moisture becomes trapped between two electrical contacts that have an electrical voltage applied between them. The result is an unintended electrolytic cell. Take a metal structure such as the Statue of Liberty. It looks strong and permanent. Like nearly all metal objects, however, it can become unstable as it reacts with substances in its environment and deteriorates. Sometimes this corrosion is harmless or even beneficial the greenish patina that covers the statue's copper skin protected the metal beneath from weather damage. Inside the statue, however, corrosion caused serious harm over the years. Its iron frame and copper skin acted like the electrodes of a huge galvanic cell, so that nearly half of the frame had rusted away by 1986, the statue's one hundredth anniversary. Plant extracts act as natural green inhibitors against corrosion of metals. They are ecofriendly and inhibit corrosion called green inhibitors. Dr. Dipti Mathur "Green Inhibitors for Corrosion of Metals" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-6 | Issue-5 , August 2022, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd50457.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/environmental-science/50457/green-inhibitors-for-corrosion-of-metals/dr-dipti-mathur