Synthesis, characterization and corrosion inhibition potential of oxadiazole derivatives for mild steel in 1M HCl: Electrochemical and computational studies

•Corrosion inhibition potential of 1,3,4-oxadiazoles is evaluated for mild steel in 1 M HCl.•SEM-EDX analyses used to study surface morphology and to demonstrate the adsorption mode of corrosion inhibition.•DFT and MD calculations were employed to support the experimental results.•The PMOT and BOT exhibited maximum efficiency of 88.93 % and 85.99 %, respectively at 300 ppm.•Polarization study indicated that PMOT and BOT act as mixed-type. Though, there is an availability of good collection of synthesized structures that are applied to combat corrosion, still a continued challenge of the problem provokes the modern corrosion scientists towards deeper insights of the research field through synthesizing more and more interesting moieties and their applied capabilities against corrosion. An anticorrosive application of synthesized 5-(phenoxy methyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2(3H)-thione(PMOT) and 5-benzyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2(3H)-thione(BOT) which are economically, safely characterized and biologically active compounds and were analyzed for mild steel (MS) through weight loss, EIS and potentiodynamic polarization measurements. SEM-EDX based methods to notice morphological changes, DFT and MD calculations were employed as supporting tools. Maximal inhibition was found to be 88.93 % for PMOT and 85.99 % for BOT at 300 ppm and 298 K. EIS findings revealed that charge transfer resistance enhanced for concentration increment and polarization plots exhibited that the molecules performed mixed type behavior with Langmuir adsorption model fit. An altered morphology of sheets within the two structures proved protect-ability. All results were in nice agreement for oxadiazoles and the moieties acted as good corrosion managing compounds in 1.0 M HCl solution.