The development of an inhibitor film is essential for the effective performance of a corrosion inhibitor. The use of attenuated total reflection fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) allows the development of inhibitor films on iron oxides to be monitored. For two distinct corrosion inhibitor chemistries, oleic imidazoline and phosphate ester, the film formation and corrosion processes are monitored on Fe3O4 in a powdered form (a model surface). Additional data following on the physical and chemical properties are obtained using XPS and SEM techniques, which allows for a more complete characterization of the model inhibitor/oxide system. By the proper choice of system and measurement techniques, the complex phenomenon of corrosion inhibition may be analyzed directly. Keywords: corrosion inhibition, ATR-FTIR, XPS, SEM, iron oxide, oleic imidazoline, phosphate ester