Abstract
Two types of corrosion inhibitors were studied. One of them, is better in adsorption performance in a static environment such as batch treatment. The other shows better inhibitor efficiency under high shear stress conditions. These inhibitors could be differentiated with contact angle measurements. The contact angle is the angle between a tangent to the drop's surface at the contact point and a tangent to the supporting substrate surface. The shape of the drop reveals the wettability and adhesion between the liquid drop and the substrate material.
The steel surface becomes hydrophobic and lipophilic after the inhibitor adsorbing. This is the mechanism of corrosion inhibitor performance on metal surfaces. The contact angle was measured on steel in air or water, where the inhibitor diluted in oil was placed. The two inhibitors showed different behaviors. The higher wettability seems favorable for the chemical adsorption on the metal substrate in a flowing system. In this paper, some ideas of contact angle measurement are also discussed. The test method describes in this work differentiates such inhibitor behavior clearly. This will provide a field operator an important first step to screen the inhibitors.
