In the present study, chalcone derivatives were synthesized via the Claisen-Schmidt condensation of 2-methyl acetanilide or 4-nitro acetanilide with p-dimethyl amino benzaldehyde in an ethanolic sodium hydroxide solution. The resulting chalcone reacted with urea or thiourea to produce several novel pyrimidine derivatives. All the synthesized compounds were characterized by FTIR, 1HNMR and 13CNMR spectroscopy. Before the synthesis process, molecular docking studies were performed to evaluate the potential of the synthesized molecules as drug candidates. Thus, molecular docking studies were performed using the CCDC GOLD suite (version 2025). The molecular docking results showed that the synthesized molecules had a noticeable affinity towards the inactive EGFR tyrosine kinase domain (PDB code: 4HJO), particularly towards molecule (A2) derivatives, which had a plp fitness (64.095) close to the reference ligand (erlitinib). The corrosion inhibition effect of A2 and A3 on the carbon steel corrosion in 3.5 % NaCl solution was studied at a temperature range of 298–328 K using electrochemical methods (potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) and Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)) at different concentrations of the inhibitors (100, 200 and 300 ppm). The results showed that the inhibitors reduced the dissolution of carbon steel, as evidenced by a decrease in the corrosion current densities. This effect can be attributed to the formation of an adsorbent layer formed of inhibitors (A2 and A3) on the surface of the metal, which protects it from attack by the acid medium. The IE % increased as the concentrations of inhibitors increased. The highest IE % value of 95.36 % was achieved with A2 at 300 ppm and 298 K. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and atomic force spectroscopy (AFM) were utilized to study the surface morphology and topography of carbon steel after 24 h of immersion in both uninhibited and inhibited saline solutions. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was utilized to demonstrate the adsorption of inhibitors on the carbon steel surface.
