Organic Compounds as Corrosion Inhibitors for Carbon Steel in HCl Solution: A Comprehensive Review

Most studies on the corrosion inhibition performance of organic molecules and (nano)materials were conducted within “carbon steel/1.0 M HCl” solution system using similar experimental and theoretical methods. As such, the numerous research findings in this system are sufficient to conduct comparative studies to select the best-suited inhibitor type that generally refers to a type of inhibitor with low concentration/high inhibition efficiency, nontoxic properties, and a simple and cost-economic synthesis process. Before data collection, to help readers have a clear understanding of some crucial elements for the evaluation of corrosion inhibition performance, we introduced the mainstay of corrosion inhibitors studies involved, including the corrosion and inhibition mechanism of carbon steel/HCl solution systems, evaluation methods of corrosion inhibition efficiency, adsorption isotherm models, adsorption thermodynamic parameters QC calculations, MD/MC simulations, and the main characterization techniques used. In the classification and statistical analysis section, organic compounds or (nano)materials as corrosion inhibitors were classified into six types according to their molecular structural characteristics, molecular size, and compound source, including drug molecules, ionic liquids, surfactants, plant extracts, polymers, and polymeric nanoparticles. We outlined the important conclusions obtained from recent literature and listed the evaluation methods, characterization techniques, and contrastable experimental data of these types of inhibitors when used for carbon steel corrosion in 1.0 M HCl solution. Finally, statistical analysis was only performed based on these data from carbon steel/1.0 M HCl solution system, from which some conclusions can contribute to reducing the workload of the acquisition of useful information and provide some reference directions for the development of new corrosion inhibitors.