The development of corrosion inhibitors that could spontaneously adsorb immediately on the metal surfaces after they are damaged by electrochemical reactions would remarkably arise the improvement of cost-saving, durability and environmental impact of metals. The use of leaf materials for metal corrosion remains an important challenge due to the high corrosion protection, availability as natural materials, environmental friendly and low-cost. Herein, we report a Houttuynia cordata leaf extract as a green corrosion inhibitor that acts as a mixed type of inhibitor for steel in an aqueous 0.1 M hydrochloric acid solution. It also performs the high inhibition performance (up to 98.3% by adding 1500 ppm inhibitor), spontaneous uniform and smooth film formation of the steel surface and less corrosion attack when the H. cordata leaf extract is added to the aqueous hydrochloric acid solution. In contrast to the inhibited systems, uninhibited specimen is severely corroded at high corrosion rate, which is associated with a significant degradation of the entire steel surface. Additionally, investigation on good adhesion and thermal stability of the protective film, as well as enriched electron abundance of selected inhibitor species are performed via molecular dynamics simulation method. Furthermore, insights of corrosion, inhibition and spontaneous film formation mechanisms are also proposed and discussed in detail.

在腐蚀剂被电化学反应破坏后能自发吸附在金属表面上的腐蚀抑制剂的开发将显着提高金属的成本节约，耐久性和环境影响。由于高度的防腐保护，天然材料的可用性，环保和低成本，使用叶片材料进行金属腐蚀仍然是一个重要的挑战。在这里，我们报告鱼腥草叶提取物作为绿色缓蚀剂，在0.1 M盐酸水溶液中作为钢的混合缓蚀剂。它还具有很高的抑制性能（通过添加1500 ppm抑制剂可达到98.3％），在钢表面自发形成均匀而光滑的膜，并减少了H. cordata时的腐蚀侵蚀将叶提取物加入盐酸水溶液中。与抑制系统相反，未抑制的试样在高腐蚀速率下会受到严重腐蚀，这与整个钢表面的显着退化有关。此外，通过分子动力学模拟方法对保护膜的良好粘附性和热稳定性以及所选抑制剂种类的丰富电子丰度进行了研究。此外，还提出并详细讨论了腐蚀，抑制和自发成膜机理的见解。