Corrosion protection of mild steel substrates using silver nanoparticles synthesized from Nicotiana tabacum leaf extract

Abstract

A successful way to protect mild steel (MS) substrates from corrosion is described by using silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) synthesized by applying co-precipitation method using extract derived from Nicotiana tabacum leaves. Using a transmission electron microscope, a full morphological analysis was done and using X-ray diffraction average crystallite size is found to be 19.1 nm. Both 0.1 M hydrochloric acid (HCl) and 3.5% sodium chloride (NaCl) are used for determination of behaviour of mild steel substrates in corrosive environments. The anti-corrosive performance is evaluated via potentiodynamic polarization studies. In solutions of 0.1 M HCl and 3.5% NaCl, Ag NPs-coated substrates show very high corrosion efficiencies of 94.27% and 96.30%, respectively. To provide further insights into surface morphology, scanning electron microscopy is employed. This analysis underscores the excellent corrosion resistance achieved by implementing Ag-NPs.