Inhibitory effect of konjac glucomanan on pitting corrosion of AA5052 aluminium alloy in NaCl solution

A natural carbohydrate polymer, konjac glucomanan, has been extracted from commercial product and studied as a green corrosion inhibitor for AA5052 aluminium alloy in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution by high-performance gel permeation chromatography (GPC), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra, electrochemical measurement and surface characterization techniques. The results of GPC measurements suggest the weight-average molecular weight and the number-average molecular weight of KGM with 98.2% purity are 1.61 × 10⁵ g/mol and 1.54 × 10⁵ g/mol, respectively. Potentiodynamic polarization curves show konjac glucomanan behaves as a mixed-type inhibitor with dominant anodic effect and that its maximum efficiency at 200 ppm is 94%. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) studies reveal the resistance of oxide film is approximately two orders of magnitude greater than the resistance of adsorbed inhibitor layer and that they both increase with KGM concentration. Moreover, in-situ electrochemical noise (EN) detection demonstrates that the growth and propagation stages of the pitting corrosion germinating on metal surface are blocked by polysaccharide additive, which is confirmed by the surface analysis of aluminium alloy using scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and Raman spectroscopy. At last, it is found that the addition of KGM makes it harder for water droplet containing NaCl to wet the metallic substrate.