Facile and low-cost green synthesis of eco-friendly chitosan-silver nanocomposite as novel and promising corrosion inhibitor for mild steel in chilled water circuits.

New promising samples of silver nanoparticles: (SNPs)-chitosan (CT) nanocomposite (NC) abbreviated as (SNPs-CTNC) have been synthesized and characterized using the novel green chemistry approach. All the synthesized formulations showed innovative corrosion inhibition for the mild steel samples in the cooling water system. The experimental conditions for the green synthesis of eco-friendly silver nanoparticles (SNPs) using chitosan (CT) biopolymer as both reducing and protecting coating agent for SNPs have been optimized. The synthesis route presented herein was performed by the reduction of silver nitrate (AgNO 3) by CT in an autoclave reactor vessel under 1 bar applied pressure at the reaction temperature of 120 °C and various contact time (2, 4, 8, and 16 h) between (AgNO 3) and chitosan (CT). The four prepared samples of SNPs-CT NC have been abbreviated in terms of the reaction or the contact time as (2 h, 4 h, 8 h, and 16 h). The four SNPs-CT NC samples were characterized using: UV–Visible spectroscopy; Fourier transform infrared (FTIR); X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The SNPs coated by chitosan biopolymer showed good antimicrobial activity, and have extremely fine particle size approaching that of the quantum dots nanoparticles. The particle size distribution of all the prepared nanocomposite samples lies around the nanometer scale range of 3–6 nm. The corrosion rate of the standard corrosion coupons of mild steel in the industrial chilled water in the absence and the presence of different concentrations of SNPs-CTNC samples were measured by the gravimetric method as well as the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and DC-potentiodynamic polarization techniques. The inhibition efficiency (%IE) of SNPs-CTNC achieved up to 97–98% at the concentration of 150 ppm SNPs-CTNC of all the prepared samples (from chemical gravimetric weight loss results). The inhibition efficiency (%IE) of the best performance SNPs-CTNC sample (8 h) showed inhibition efficiency above 80% at 100 ppm (as evident by the further electrochemical techniques: impedance and potentiodynamic polarization results). Both the inhibition efficiency and the antimicrobial activity of SNPs-CT NC samples remained unchanged on aging for twelve months storage where: The percent inhibition efficiency of all SNPs-CTNC samples remain above the percentage of 93% on aging for this relatively long storage time period, the sample 2 h showed the most constant inhibition efficiency (97.6% for the fresh prepared sample and 97.5% for the twelve months aged sample). In addition, the scanning electron (SEM) micrographs have been showed that: A clean and bright metal surface was maintained after the exposure to the chilled water in the presence of SNPs-CTNC along the immersion time of one year. The nanocomposite samples acted by spontaneous physisorption on the metal surface as indicated by the negative value of ΔG° adsorption (equals −18.002 kJ·mol−1). The adsorption data represented in the surface coverage (θ) were found to be linearly fitted well to Langmuir adsorption isotherm with positive and relatively large value of the binding equilibrium constant (K) (43.6) that represented the strong attraction forces between the adsorbed nanocomposite particles and the metal surface. The mode of the adsorption of these nanocomposite particles on the metal surface has been interpreted in terms of the electrostatic interaction between the negatively charged colloidal SNPs and the positively the charged metal surface. • Silver nanoparticles - Chitosan nanocomposite (AgNPs-CT-NC) • Cooling water system • Chilled water • Novelty • Inhibition efficiency [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]