Corrosion Science 52 (2010) 661–664

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Corrosion Science
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/corsci

Short Communication

The effects of Aloe vera extract on corrosion and kinetics of corrosion process
of zinc in HCl solution
Olusegun K. Abiola a,*, A.O. James b
a
Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, Nigeria
b
Department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The effect of the extract of Aloe vera leaves on the corrosion of zinc in 2 M HCl solution was studied using
Received 25 July 2009 weight loss technique. A. vera extract inhibited the corrosion of zinc in 2 M HCl solution and the inhibi-
Accepted 17 October 2009 tion efficiency increased with increasing concentration of the extract but decreased with increasing tem-
Available online 23 October 2009
perature. The adsorption of the inhibitor molecules on zinc surface was in accordance with Langmuir
adsorption isotherm. A first-order kinetics relationship with respect to zinc was obtained with and with-
Keywords: out the extract from the kinetics treatment of the data.
A. Zinc
Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
B. Weight loss
C. Acid corrosion
C. Kinetic parameters

1. Introduction More recently, A. vera extract has been established as an eco-

Metals and their alloys are exposed to the action of acid in
industrial processes where acids play important roles such as in
oil well acidizing, acid pickling, acid cleaning and acid descaling.
Corrosion inhibitors [1–6] are usually added to the acid solutions
to minimize metal loss and reduce acid consumption. However,
some of these corrosion inhibitors are toxic to the environment
[4,5,7–9] and this has prompted the search for eco-friendly corro-
sion inhibitors for metals in acid solutions.
Thus, there has been increased interest in employing plant ex-
tracts as corrosion inhibitors for metals in acid solution for sustain-
able development. This is because plants serve as incredibly rich
sources of naturally synthesized chemical compounds that are
environmentally acceptable, inexpensive, readily available and
renewable source of materials [10–14]. For example, Aloe vera is
rich in several heterocyclic compounds [15–17] of high molecular
weight, with oxygen and nitrogen atoms incorporated in their
molecular structures.
Consequently, attention has been focused on the corrosion
inhibiting properties [7,8,10–14,16–20] of natural products from
plants. Several plant extracts such as Gossipium hirsutum [10], Co-
cos nucifera [18], lawsonia [19], Azadirachta indica [20], etc. have
been reported to inhibit the corrosion of metals in acid and alkaline
solutions.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +234 8033360504.
E-mail address: abiolaolusegun@yahoo.com (O.K. Abiola).
friendly corrosion inhibitor of acid corrosion of mild steel [16]
and aluminum [17] in acid solutions, using chemical technique.
Presently, to the best of our knowledge, there is no reported work
on inhibitive effects of A. vera extract on acid corrosion of zinc in
hydrochloric acid solution. Therefore, we consider it necessary to
study the effect of A. vera extract on the acid corrosion of zinc in
HCl solution.
This paper reports the effects of A. vera extract on both the cor-
rosion of zinc and kinetics of corrosion process of zinc in 2 M HCl
solution using weight loss technique.
2. Experimental
Zinc sheets (98.53%) of 0.038 cm in thickness supplied by World
Bank Engineering workshop, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria
were used for this study. Each sheet was mechanically press –
cut into rectangular specimens in sizes of 4  3  0.038 cm. The
specimens were used as cut without further polishing to ensure
reproducible surfaces. However, they were degreased in absolute
ethanol, rinsed with double distilled water, dried in acetone
[21,22] and stored in moisture free desiccators before their use
for this study.
The HCl was analytical grade; used without further purification
and 2 M HCl was employed as the aggressive solution for this
study.
Stock solution of A. vera was prepared as follows.
The gel was squeezed out of the fresh leaves and sieved to ob-
tain a clear liquid (5 ml). The gel was diluted with appropriate

0010-938X/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2009.10.026
662 O.K. Abiola, A.O. James / Corrosion Science 52 (2010) 661–664

quantity of 2 M HCl solution to obtain inhibitor test solutions of 1,

1.5, 2, 2.5, 4 and 10% v/v concentrations.

2.1. Weight loss determination

The procedure for weight loss determination was similar to that

reported earlier [21–23].
The pre-weighed zinc coupons were immersed in 100 ml of 2 M
HCl solutions (in open beakers) without and with different concen-
trations (1–10% v/v) of the extract at 30 °C for total period of
150 min immersion period.
The variation of weight loss was monitored at interval of 30 min
progressively for a total of 150 min per coupon at 30 °C. The cou-
pons were withdrawn from the solution at interval of 30 min
immersion period, immersed in water, scrubbed with a bristle
brush under running water, dried and reweighed. Triplicate exper-
iments were set up for each concentration of inhibitor.
The effect of temperature on the corrosion rate of zinc coupon
in 2 M HCl at 40 °C was also studied with different concentrations
(1–10% v/v) of the extract. Fig. 1. The plot of weight loss of zinc coupon versus Aloe vera extract concentration
in 2 M HCl for 30 min immersion period at 30 °C.

3. Results and discussion

Table 1
The plot of weight loss (mg per unit area) of zinc coupon versus Inhibition efficiency, apparent Ea and Qads of Aloe vera extract on zinc for 30 min.
inhibitor concentration at 30 °C for 30 min immersion period is immersion period.

shown in Fig. 1. Weight loss (mg/cm2) as a function of inhibitor Concentration (% v/ % Inhibition Ea Qads
concentration decreased gradually up to 5% v/v concentration v) (kJ mol1) (kJ mol1)
30 °C 40 °C
and decreased rapidly at 10% v/v concentration. This indicates that
0 – – 2.87 –
A. vera extract inhibits the acid corrosion of zinc in 2 M HCl solu- 1 33.0 ± 9.4 30.6 ± 6.4 5.69 7.24
tion. The values of percentage inhibition efficiency (% I) were deter- 1.5 35.5 ± 8.0 32.7 ± 9.0 6.30 10.50
mined for 30 min immersion periods using the equation: 2 40.3 ± 6.1 36.2 ± 7.3 8.04 13.40
2.5 42.9 ± 7.2 39.1 ± 8.2 8.29 13.05
% I ¼ ½wu  wb =wu   100 ð1Þ 4 47.3 ± 7.0 43.8 ± 9.1 8.02 9.54
10 67.1 ± 5.2 59.8 ± 8.0 17.97 23.87
where wu and wb are the uninhibited and inhibited weight losses,
respectively.
Assuming a direct relationship between inhibition efficiency (% attack on the metal surface. The inhibitive effect of A. vera is as-
I) and surface coverage (h) for different inhibitor concentrations, cribed to the presence of organic compounds in the extract. A. vera
the degree of surface coverage (h) was calculated using the is rich in several organic compounds [15–17] of high molecular
relationship: weight with heteroatom and p centers in their molecular struc-
tures. These include tannins, saponins, steroids, arabinose, resins,
h ¼ % I=100 ð2Þ
galactose, carbohydrates, polysaccharides, anthraglycosides and
Table 1 collects the percentage inhibition efficiency for 30 min anthraquinones. Furthermore, it also contains several biologically
immersion periods at 30 and 40 °C. The percentage inhibition effi- active compounds [15], such as aloin A or barbaloin ((10S)-10-Glu-
ciency values, as presented in Table 1 for triplicate zinc specimens copyranosyl-1,8-dihydroxy-3-(hydroxymethyl)-9(10H)-anthrace-
were precise to ±9.4%; this indicates good reproducibility. As seen none, C21H22O9, 418.39), aloin B or isobarbaloin ((10R)-10-
in Table 1, the percentage inhibition efficiency values increase with Glucopyranosyl-1,8-dihydroxy-3-(hydroxymethyl)-9(10H)-anth-
increasing extract concentration, but decrease with increasing racenone, C21H22O9, 418.39) and aloe emodins (4-(7-Butyl-5H-pyr-
temperature. The highest inhibition efficiency of 67% was obtained rolo[2,3-b]pyrazin-6-yl)-phenol, C16H17N3O, 267.33 and 1,8-
at 10% v/v concentration at 30 °C. dihydroxy-3-(hydroxymethyl)-9,10-anthraquinone, C15H10O5, 270.24).
This result suggests that increase in extract concentration in- The molecular structure of aloin reveals an anthraquinone link
creases the number of inhibitor molecules adsorbed onto zinc sur- to a pentose with 5 oxygen atoms, and aloe emodins show hetero-
face and reduces the surface area that is available for the direct acid cyclic organic compounds with nitrogen or oxygen atoms.
 O.K. Abiola, A.O. James / Corrosion Science 52 (2010) 661–664
The inhibition effect of A. vera may be due to the presence of
these organic compounds in the extract. Since A. vera contains sev-
eral compounds, synergistic and antagonistic effects may play an
important role on the inhibition efficiency of A. vera as an inhibitor.
Organic compounds having centers for p electrons and functional
groups of O, S or N/ or combination have been reported as corro-
sion inhibitors for zinc in acid solutions [1–4]. The adsorption of
these compounds on zinc surface reduces the surface area that is
available for the attack of the aggressive ion from the acid solution.
As seen in Fig. 1, the weight loses decrease with increase in ex-
tract concentration due to higher degree of surface coverage, h as a
result of enhanced inhibitor adsorption. Similar view has been re-
ported previously [10,18,27]. Also, Fig. 2 confirms that the inhibi-
tion is due to the adsorption of the active organic compounds
onto metal surface. This is because a straight line is obtained when
C/h is plotted against C and the linear correlation coefficient of the
fitted data is close to 1, indicating that the adsorption of the inhib-
itor molecules obey the Langmuir’s adsorption isotherm [14,27]
expressed as
C 1
¼Cþ
h K
where C is the inhibitor concentration and K the equilibrium con-
stant for the adsorption/desorption process of the inhibitor mole-
cules on the metal surface.
The effect of increase in solution temperature from 30 to 40 °C
on the inhibitor efficiency is summarized in Table 1. Increased in
temperature decreased the inhibitor efficiency and this suggest
that the process of adsorption of the inhibitor molecules is physical
in nature.
The apparent activation energy, Ea of the corrosion reaction was
calculated using the Arrhenius equation
 
v2 Ea 1 1
log ¼ 
v 1 2:303R T1 T2
where v1 and v2 are corrosion rates at temperature T1 and T2,
respectively.
The heat of adsorption, Qads was calculated using Eq. (5) [24,25]
    
h2 h1 T1T2
Q ads ¼ 2:303R log  log  ð5Þ
1  h2 1  h1 T2  T1
where h1 and h2 are the values of surface coverage at temperatures
T1 and T2.
Fig. 2. Langmuir adsorption model on the zinc surface of Aloe vera extract in 2 M
HCl solution for 30 min immersion period at 30 °C.
663
Fig. 3. Plot of log [Wi  DWt] versus time for zinc coupons in 2 M HCl solution with
and without Aloe vera extract at 30 °C.
ð3Þ
The values of Ea and Qads are presented in Table 1. The observed
increase in activation energy in the presence of inhibitor from 2.71
to 17.22 kJ mol1, with attendant decrease in inhibition efficiency
of the inhibitor as temperature increases, suggests physical adsorp-
tion of the inhibitor molecules on the zinc surface. This is in accor-
dance with the findings of other workers [12,24,25]. The negative
value of the heat of adsorption process indicates that the adsorp-
tion process is exothermic in nature. This observation further con-
firms physical adsorption of the inhibitor on the zinc surface in HCl
solution.
As depicted in Fig. 3, the corrosion data fit the rate law for first-
order reaction as expressed [26] in Eq. (5)
ð4Þ
k
log½W i  DW t  ¼  t þ log W i ð6Þ
2:303
where Wi is the initial weight of zinc specimen, DWt is the weight
loss of zinc specimen at time t, the term [Wi  DWt] is the residual
weight of zinc specimen at time t and k is the first-order rate
constant.
The obtained linear plots with correlation coefficient of almost
1, confirm a first-order kinetics for the corrosion of zinc in 2 M
HCl solution without and with the A. vera extract.
Fig. 3 reflects the anodic reaction order with respect to zinc, i.e.,
the anodic reaction (Eq. (7)).
Zn ! Znþ2 þ 2e ð7Þ
From the result (Fig. 3), it could be said that the inhibition of
acid corrosion of zinc by A. vera extract does not influence the ano-
dic reaction order. As seen in Fig. 3, similar plot was obtained for
zinc in HCl solution (control) and with the extract.
4. Conclusions
The extract of A. vera inhibits the corrosion of zinc in 2 M HCl
solutions, with inhibition efficiency of 67% at 10% v/v extract con-
centration and the % inhibition efficiency decreased with increase
in temperature. The adsorption of the inhibitor molecules was con-
sistent with Langmuir adsorption isotherm and a first-order kinet-
ics relationship was obtained from the kinetics treatment of the
data of weight loss measurements.
664 O.K. Abiola, A.O. James / Corrosion Science 52 (2010) 661–664

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