Pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) seed-derived nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur carbon quantum dot as an inhibitor of corrosion for mild steel in HCl solution

In this work, an endogenous self-doping N,P,S-CQDs was synthesized by the acid hydrolysis of pumpkin seeds (Cucurbita maxima) and its performance as a corrosion inhibitor was evaluated. Mild steel (MS) is one of the most used materials in the industry; however, it has low corrosion resistance in acidic environments. Pumpkin is cultivated worldwide, and this compositional characteristic makes pumpkin seeds a great alternative as a raw material to produce CQDs. The results show that endogenous self-doping CQD was successfully obtained with a size distribution smaller than 10 nm. The N,P,S-CQDs presented 91.3% at 60 ppm and 94.6% at 10 ppm as maximum inhibition efficiency after 2 and 24 h immersion, respectively. Activation energy studies, XPS analysis, and isotherm studies show that the inhibition mechanism occurs through physical interaction. These results show an excellent alternative for using pumpkin seeds (Cucurbita maxima), an agroindustry waste, as a corrosion inhibitor.