The objective of this work was to investigate the efficiency of imidazole derivatives for corrosion inhibition of copper in 0.5 M hydrochloric arid. Corrosion inhibition was studied using impedance spectroscopy. Imidazole and its derivatives 4-methylimidazole, 4-methyl-5-hydroxymethylimidazole, 1-phenyl-4-methylimidazole, 1-(p-tolyl)-3-methylimidazole were investigated. These studies have shown that 1-(p-tolyl)-4-methylimidazole is the best inhibitor in this series and that it acts as mixed inhibitor. The nature of the chemical interaction between these molecules and the copper surface was investigated for Cu exposed to solutions having two very different pH values: 0.5 M HCl and unbuffered purified water. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry were used to explore the nature of the interaction. Possible mechanisms of corrosion inhibition for these molecules are discussed.