Abstract
•In the present review imidazole and its derivatives are surveyed as corrosion inhibitors for metals and alloys.•Generally, imidazole and its derivatives inhibit metallic corrosion by adsorbing on the interface of metal and electrolytes.•Literature studies revealed that imidazole and its derivatives behaved as mixed type corrosion inhibitors.•Mostly, imidazole and its derivatives acted as interface type corrosion inhibitors.•Imidazole and its derivatives interact with metallic surface using donor-acceptor (charge sharing) interactions.
Imidazole represents a special class of heterocyclic compounds that possesses several industrial and biological activities. Imidazole and its derivatives are extensively employed as corrosion inhibitors for different metals in different electrolytes. Most of the imidazole based compounds behaved as mixed and interface type corrosion inhibitors and their adsorption mechanism obeyed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. Generally, imidazole and its derivatives interact with metallic surface using electron rich centers. Present article also describes collection of major studies that described the anticorrosive effect of imidazole and its derivatives.