Investigation of the Interaction Nanostructure sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) with the copper Surface as a Corrosion Inhibitor

Corrosion plays a very important role in diverse fields of industry and, consequently, ineconomics. The protection of metals and alloys is thus of particular interest. The goal ofstudying the processes of corrosion is to find methods of minimizing or preventing it. The useof inhibitors is one of the most practical methods for protection against corrosion. Most wellknowninhibitors are organic compounds, such as those containing nitrogen, sulphur, anaromatic ring and oxygen atoms. To be effective, an inhibitor must also displace water fromthe metal surface, interact with anodic or cathodic reaction sites to retard the oxidation andreduction corrosion reaction, and prevent transportation of water and corrosion-active speciesto the surface. One of the most important organic compounds that can be used as inhibitor,are surface active materials (surfactant). Surfactant inhibitors have many advantages such as,high inhibition efficiency, low price, low toxicity, and easy production. Surfactants areusually organic compounds that are amphiphilic, meaning they contain both hydrophobicgroups (their tails) and hydrophilic groups (their heads). It is reported that the interactionbetween hydrocarbon chains of surfactants will occur through van der Waals forces when thesurface concentration of surfactant adsorbed on solid surface in high enough, forming anorganized structure, the hemi micelle[3,4], which can be expected to decrease the corrosionreactions by blocking the surface of metals and alloys. Copper is considered to be one of themost important metal which is frequently used in different industrial applications. The aim ofthis work is to study the effect of SDS on the copper corrosion and explain the protectionmechanism.