An inhibitive system to mitigate the corrosion of AA2024-T3 in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution: Utilizing the synergistic effect of cerium cations and benzimidazole molecules

This study aims to improve the anti-corrosion protection performance of AA2024-T3 using the synergistic effect of organic and inorganic corrosion inhibitors in saline solution. Combining the Ce3+ cations and benzimidazole (BI) molecules was employed as the inhibitive system for the AA2024-T3. Electrochemical properties of the metallic substrate in the presence and absence of the inhibitive system were studied utilizing EIS, PD, and OCP techniques. In addition, GIXRD, ATR-FTIR, XPS, OM, FE-SEM/EDS, water contact angle, and AFM were hired to study the protection mechanism. Based on the results obtained, the inhibitive system has a synergistic effect in improving the anti-corrosion protection performance of AA2024-T3. The synergistic index for the Ce + BI system was calculated to be around 19. Also, the efficiency of the synergistic system in the simultaneous presence of Ce3+ cations and BI molecules as the corrosion inhibitor was 99.3 %, which is higher than that of other inhibitive systems. Finally, the surface analysis outcomes revealed that the inhibitive film forming on the samples' surface during the immersion of the sample in the saline solution in the presence of the inhibitive species is the main factor in boosting the anti-corrosion properties of the aluminum substrate.