Solvothermal synthesis of functionalized carbon dots from amino acid as an eco-friendly corrosion inhibitor for copper in sulfuric acid solution

In this work, novel N-doped carbon dots (N-CDs) were synthesized from citric acid and l-serine. The results of fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) show that there are many unsaturated bonds and polar groups in the N-CDs. The inhibition performance of the concerned zero-dimensional nanomaterial for copper was investigated by electrochemical, combining FT-IR, XPS and Raman to investigate the corrosion products. Results indicate that the N-CDs were found to be effective inhibitor with the suppression efficiency as high as 98.5% means after immersed for 24 h, and they interacted with copper substrate by chemical & physical adsorption. Moreover, the related anticorrosion mechanism was explored and elucidated in detail. The purpose of this work is to explore eco-friendly and efficient corrosion inhibitor materials for metal protection.