The corrosion inhibition characteristics of 2-aminophenyl-5-mercapto-1-oxa-3,4-diazole (AMOD) on mild steel in HCl solution have been studied by weight loss studies and potentiodynamic polarization. AMOD is a good corrosion inhibitor in HCl solution and its inhibition efficiency is increased markedly in presence of surfactants (SDS, CTAB, TX-100). TX-100 is found to be most effective among the tested surfactants. Weight loss measurements showed that the inhibition efficiency increased with the increasing surfactant concentration and attained a maximum value around 0.2 mol dm(-3). In presence of surfactant, the adsorption of AMOD on the mild steel surface obeyed Langmuir's adsorption isotherm. The influence of inhibitor concentration, solution temperature, and acid concentration on the corrosion rate of mild steel has also been investigated. The deduced thermodynamic parameters for adsorption reveal a strong interaction between the inhibitor and mild steel surface. The negative values of G(ads) indicate the spontaneous adsorption of inhibitors on the mild steel surface. Potentiodynamic polarization studies show that these surfactants are mixed-type inhibitors. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.