Studying surface and thermodynamic behavior of a new multi-hydroxyl Gemini cationic surfactant and investigating their performance as corrosion inhibitor and biocide

Some of commercial materials, like monoethanolamine, chloroacetic acid, triethanolamine amine and vanillin have been used for constructing three Gemini cationic surfactants with different hydrophobic tail length labelled CMTC, LMTC & PMTC. The chemical structure of the new Gemini was confirmed by FTIR &1HNMR. The hydrophobic tail of the synthesized Gemini controls their behavior in solution at the three studied temperatures as studied by surface tension measurements. The PMTC Gemini cationic surfactants with longest tail length showed lowest critical micelle concentration; which also showed a decreasing trend with raising the solution temperature. The thermodynamics insight refer the higher tendency of the synthesized surfactants toward adsorption and micellization with both increasing the hydrophobicity and temperature. The prepared electronic rich surfactant showed good inhibiting against the steel corrosion in the aggressive 1.0 M HCl; which is correlated with the surfactant structure and the temperature. The PMTC surfactant showed highest inhibition efficiency 92.09% at 55 °C, due the longer hydrophobic tail exhibit higher adsorption affinity compared to shorter surfactant tail CMTC. The polarization measurement revealed that the three surfactants behave as mixed type inhibitors. The synthesized three electronic rich Gemini surfactants showed high antimicrobial activity against bacteria & fungi, which was found correlated with the surfactant hydrophobic behaviors. •Water soluble Gemini surfactants based on commercial materials were prepared.•The structure of Gemini surfactant has great effect on the steel corrosion inhibition.•Longer chain PMTC surfactant showed highest inhibition efficiency 92.09% at 55 °C.•The synthesized CMTC, LMTC & PMTC showed high antibiotic effect against microorganism.