Corrosion Inhibition of Copper by Thioureas and N, O, S-Ligating Ring Compounds

Certain N, O, S-ligating ring compounds and thioureas were investigated to understand their role of copper corrosion inhibition in acetonitrile. For 5 quinones under study, including xanthone, xanthene, thioxanthone, acridone and 1,4-naphthoquinone, acridone was the best inhibitor, with Cu corrosion rate of 4.495 × 10 mm/year, whereas 1,4naphthoquinone exhibited the lowest inhibition, due to a lower number of nitrogen groups. With the presence of sulphur, to form a stronger bond with Cu, thioureas had better inhibiting behavior than quinones. Of 4 thioureas, namely thiourea (tu), diphenylthiourea (dptu), phenylthiourea (ptu), and ethylenethiourea (etu), the fourth shows the highest inhibition – with Cu corrosion rate of 2.27 × 10 mm/year – and the third shows the lowest one, due to the steric effect from the phenyl group. When halide ions are present, the inhibition efficiency of thioureas decreases, due to more preferable Cu complexation to halides; the strongest copper-halide bond formation occurred by the freest iodide ion, which is consistent with the results from X-ray crystallography and electrochemistry.