Investigation of the inhibition effect of ibuprofen triazole against mild steel corrosion in an acidic environment M. K. Pavithra • T. V. Venkatesha • M. K. Punith Kumar • K. Manjunatha Received: 16 June 2014 / Accepted: 2 September 2014 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract The inhibition performance of ibuprofen triazole (IT) on mild steel (MS) corrosion in 1.0 M HCl and 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 has been investigated by using electro- chemical (potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectros- copy), gravimetric, and quantum chemical studies. Electrochemical investigation indicates that IT hampers MS corrosion via adsorption through a mixed inhibition mechanism. The protection ability of IT increases with an increasing concentration of inhibitor and decreases with increasing temperature. The adsorption of IT mol- ecules on MS surface follows the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Certain quantum chemical parameters were calculated to ascertain the correlation between inhibitive effect and molecular structure of IT. Keywords Mild steel  Inhibitor  Acid corrosion  Adsorption  Potentiodynamic polarization  Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy Introduction Mild steel (MS), which is an alloy form of iron, is an engineering material used in water pipelines, cooling water systems, boilers, process industries, oil and gas, and M. K. Pavithra  T. V. Venkatesha (&) Department of Chemistry, School of Chemical Sciences, Jnana Sahyadri Campus, Kuvempu University, Shimoga 577451, Karnataka, India e-mail: drtvvenkatesha@yahoo.co.uk M. K. Punith Kumar Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, Karnataka, India K. Manjunatha Department of Chemistry, Mangalore University, Mangala Gangothri 574199, Karnataka, India 123 Res Chem Intermed DOI 10.1007/s11164-014-1804-5