Corrosion Control by Carbon-Based Nanomaterials: A Review

Corrosion has always been a major issue that restricts social development. The global annual corrosion cost is 2.5 trillion U.S. dollars (approximately 3.4% of the world’s gross domestic product). Corrosion can also cause resource waste, environmental pollution, and major safety accidents. In recent years, researchers have utilized various corrosion prevention and control technologies and materials to protect metals and other materials from corrosion and achieved gratifying results. Among them, carbon materials have been applied in anticorrosion treatment due to their unique physical and chemical properties, low price, and environmental friendliness. This review mainly summarizes the structure of carbon-based nanomaterials (such as graphene, graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, carbon quantum dots, carbon fiber, graphite, etc.) and their applications in corrosion prevention as coating, corrosion inhibition, photocathodes, etc. It focuses on the current research status and corrosion resistance mechanism of carbon materials such as graphene, graphene oxide, carbon quantum dots, and carbon nanotubes in the field of corrosion prevention and control.