Corrosion inhibitors for carbon steel: A review

Abstract Corrosion inhibitors are one of the practical and cost‐effective way of preventing and inhibiting corrosion. An inhibitor's primary function includes creating a barrier by forming one or more molecular layers to protect against corrosive attacks. Organic molecules are one of the most popular, efficient, and practical corrosion inhibitors, and all studies demonstrate that organic compounds, preferentially those containing nitrogen (N), sulphur (S), and oxygen (O), have high inhibitory efficiency. Also, corrosion inhibitors include inorganic compounds. Since inorganic and organic inhibitors are both toxic and expensive; emphasis is being placed on developing green corrosion inhibitors as well as on modification of inhibitors. We are focusing on carbon steel (CS) substrate in this review as it is the first‐line material and is widely employed in various industrial applications. Whereas corrosion resistance of CSs in acidic environments is a constantly evolving topic, working on better performance of CSs as more cost‐effective alternatives to other alloys.