In this study the inhibitive behaviour of benzotriazole, 5-methyl benzotriazole, 5-chloro benzotriazole and 5-nitro benzotriazole on the corrosion of pure aluminium in 0?1M HCl has been investigated by the potentiostatic polarisation technique. For this purpose, corrosion potentials E corr , corrosion rates i corr , anodic and cathodic Tafel slopes b a , b c , inhibition efficiencies IE, and surface coverages h, were determined in 0?1M HCl solutions containing various concentrations (i.e. 1610 25 M, 5610 25 M, 1610 24 M, 5610 24 M, 1610 23 M) of benzotriazole derivatives. The efficiency of the studied benzotriazole derivatives at a concentration of 1610 24 M was found be in the following order: 5-nitrobenzotriazole.5-methyl benzotriazole.5chloro benzotriazole.benzotriazole. It was observed that the benzotriazole derivatives were behaving as cathodic inhibitors and the inhibiting action of these heterocyclic compounds was mainly due to adsorption on the metal surface, which parallels the total negative charge of each molecule. From the adsorption isotherms, values of the free energy of adsorption DG ads and the equilibrium constant K ads for the adsorption processes were calculated. Corrosion rates were determined electrochemically at 20uC, 30uC, 40uC, 50uC and 60uC with 1610 24 M or 1610 23 M of these compounds in 0?1M HCl. From the corrosion rates obtained at different temperatures, activation parameters for the corrosion processes such as activation energies E a , activation enthalpies DH* and activation entropies DS* were determined and possible mechanisms for the corrosion and inhibition processes have been proposed. CEST/1958