Corrosion is a pernicious phenomenon that appears in engineering materials, infrastructure assets, and industrial equipment exposed to the atmosphere, water, and soil. The aim of this chapter is to produce a body of knowledge on the theory and practice of corrosion inhibition so it can be used in the selection of corrosion inhibitors, to prevent and/or minimize corrosion in natural environments and industrial facilities. Corrosion inhibitors are employed in different forms such as emitters, pellets, powders, films, paints, aerosols, and aqueous and solvent solutions, depending on their chemical composition: organic or inorganic. They are impregnated on papers or plastics; closed in pouches and sachets; or added to coatings and paints to form a barrier against the attack of corrosive agents. They are employed in many industries: automotive, offshore/onshore, water, military, marine, manufacture, oil and gas, electronics, and concrete structures. A special group of corrosion inhibitors are extracted from vegetables or derived from industrial vegetable wastes, which are related to the advanced field of “Green Chemistry.” The use of vapor corrosion inhibitors (VCI) has expanded rapidly in the last decades, and is frequently mentioned in the relevant literature, in particular in professional congresses and conferences, organized by international and national corrosion associations.
Part of the book: Corrosion Inhibitors, Principles and Recent Applications