In this study, the inhibition effect of 2((5-mercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-ylimino)methyl)phenol Schiff base (MTMP) on mild steel corrosion in 0.5 M HCl solution was studied. For this aim, electrochemical techniques such as potentiodynamic polarization curves, weight loss (WL), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and linear polarization resistance (LPR) were used. It was shown that, the MTMP Schiff base has remarkable inhibition efficiency on the corrosion of mild steel in 0.5 M HCl solution. Polarization measurements indicated that, the studied inhibitor acts as mixed type corrosion inhibitor with predominantly control of cathodic reaction. The inhibition efficiency depends on the concentration of inhibitor and reaches 97% at 1.0 mM MTMP. The remarkable inhibition efficiency of MTMP was discussed in terms of blocking of electrode surface by adsorption of inhibitor molecules through active centers. The adsorption of MTMP molecules on the mild steel surface obeys Langmuir adsorption isotherm. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.