The effect of newly synthesised three Schiff bases-2-[2-aza-2-(5-methyl(2-pyridly))vinyl]phenol, 2-[2-aza-2-(5-methyl(2-pyridly))vinyl]-4-bromophenol, 2-[2-aza-2-(5-methyl(2-pyridly))vinyl]-4-chlorophenol-on the corrosion behaviour of aluminium in 0.1 M HCl were investigated using potentiodynamic polarisation, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and linear polarisation methods. Polarisation curves indicate that all studied Schiff bases were acting as mixed type inhibitors. All measurements show that inhibition efficiencies increase with increase in inhibitor concentration. This reveals that inhibitive actions of inhibitors were mainly due to adsorption on aluminium surface. Adsorption of these inhibitors follows Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Thermodynamic parameters of adsorption (K-ads,K-Delta G(ads)) of studied Schiff bases were calculated using Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The variation in inhibition efficiency values depends on the type of functional groups substituted on benzene ring. It was found that the presence of bromine and chlorine atoms in the molecular structure of studied Schiff bases facilitate the adsorption of molecule on aluminium surface. The correlation between the inhibition efficiencies of studied Schiff bases and their molecular structure has been investigated using quantum chemical parameters obtained by MNDO semi-empirical SCF-MO methods. These results indicate that adsorption of studied Schiff bases depends on the charge density of adsorption centres and dipole moments. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.