The inhibitive effects of 1-(2H)-phthalazinone (PTO) for aluminum alloy (2024) corrosion in 1.0 M HCl solution and the synergistic effect of KI on the corrosion inhibition efficiency were assessed using electrochemical measurements. Results showed that the inhibition efficiency increased with an increase in concentration of the PTO and synergistically increased with addition of KI. Adsorption characteristic of PTO molecules in absence and presence of KI was approximated by Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherm models, respectively. The synergistic effect is found to decrease with increase in the concentration of PTO and a competitive inhibition mechanism exists between KI and PTO cations. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.