Enhanced corrosion inhibition of mild steel by cross-linked lanolin-coatings

Mild steel exhibits moderate to poor corrosion resistance in some service conditions. In this work, several corrosion inhibiting formulations were prepared by mixing three different grades of commercially available linseed oils, namely crude, drying and refined, to lanolin (wool grease). Mild steel plates were coated with those formulations and their corrosion inhibition performance was assessed by various methods. We found that the addition of linseed oils to lanolin considerably increased corrosion inhibition performance of the lanolin-coated steel plates. Of the linseed oils investigated, lanolin containing 15% drying linseed oil (DLO)-coated plates showed the best corrosion inhibition, the lowest weight loss and the lowest surface tackiness. Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) analysis and the increased contact angle for the DLO-containing lanolin-coated plates suggest that DLO formed crosslink with lanolin.