Research Projects

Corrosion is indeed a very serious threat and poses a maleficent risk to the economy and environment. The problems manifest through the collapse of structures and bridges, puncture in pipelines (oil, natural gas, water, etc.), decaying different precious machinery, household utilities, vehicles (cars, ships, airplanes, etc.), as well as highly precious electrical machinery and even surgical tools. Steels have long been regarded as an economical structural material due to their wide range of uses, optimum mechanical properties, and ease of formability. However, steels experiences serious corrosion, and among several factors, severity also depends upon the grades of steel and reactivity of the surrounding environment. Therefore, the adequacy of atmospheric and environmental circumstances has led to the development of several protective strategies. One affordable and effective way to combat corrosion is the implementation of corrosion inhibitors, which are added in few ppm levels. Numerous inorganic and organic compounds have been well-investigated and documented as efficient corrosion inhibitors. However, their usage is restricted due to their expensive cost and/or harmful side effects during manufacturing and application. Amusingly, the advent of green corrosion inhibitors (GCIs) addresses these issues with their exceptional performance, cheaper availability, renewable nature, environmental compatibility, and lack of toxicity. As a result, research on green chemistry and GCIs has observed an obvious increase.Hence the study above at IIT Kanpur has opened an avenue for utilizing tropical plants and fruits as well as natural wastes like feces like buffalo manure for exploration for management of corrosion menace for the metals. We have already seen the efficacy of Sadabahar leaf as well as leather buffing dust on the corrosion inhibition for carbon steels. We have also seen the excellent inhibition efficiency of cow manure on carbon steels. We would like to do the following objectives. Objectives: I. Cow manure extract on the corrosion inhibition effect on Cu-based, Al-based and Ni-based alloys. II. Exploring buffalo manure on the corrosion protection of steels, Cu-based, Al-based and Ni-based alloys. Buffalo manure constituents are different than cow manure (we have already explored cow manure extract). III. Extracts from Sadabahar leaf for the corrosion inhibition effect on Cu-based, Al-based and Ni-based alloys. IV. Extracting inhibitor from other parts of Sadabahar, like root, stem and flower for seeing corrosion protection of steels, Cu-based, Al-based and Ni-based alloys. Other sources from the same plant show presence of phenolic compounds (which provide corrosion inhibition) and hence it is worth investigating. V. All the inhibitors will be checked over a range of pHs (2 to 13) and their sustainability over long duration.