Evaluation of Anti-Oxidant Properties of Lemon Grass Essential Oil in Inhibiting Corrosion of Mild Steel

Abstract

Lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) essential oil was extracted by hydrodistillation method, using all glass Clevenger apparatus. The essential oil obtained was used as inhibitor (anti-oxidant) to inhibit the corrosion of mild steel in acid and alkaline media. Samples of mild steel were exposed to acid and alkaline media in the absence of inhibitor and their corrosion rates were evaluated. Subsequently, other samples of the same mild steel were exposed to acid and alkaline environment in the presence of varied concentrations of the inhibitor. It was found that, the corrosion rates are relatively higher in the uninhibited systems than the inhibited systems. This entails that the essential oils have profound effect of inhibiting corrosion of mild steel in both acid and alkaline media. The inhibition efficiency was found to increase with a corresponding increase in the concentration of the inhibitors.