Quantum dots as ecofriendly and aqueous phase substitutes of carbon family for traditional corrosion inhibitors: A perspective

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2021.117648Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Carbon dots (CDs) or quantum dots (QDs) are new anticorrosive materials of carbon family.

  • Because of their ecofriendly and high solubility, recently CDs are being used as aqueous phase corrosion inhibitor.

  • CDs derived from different exhibit remarkable anticorrosive activity.

  • N doped, N,S co-doped and chemically modified CDs exhibit higher anticorrosive activity than purified CDs.

  • CDs mostly behave as mixed- and interface-type inhibitors and become effective by retarding both Tafel reactions.

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) or quantum dots (QDs) are a new and rising member of the carbon family that has withdrawn substantial academic and industrial attention. Unlike to most of the carbon allotropes such as CNTs, graphene and fullerene, CDs are associated with numerous advantages including substantial biocompatibility, high quantum yield, magnified adsorption ability, excellent electric conductivity, low toxicity, cost-effectivity, eco-friendliness, high solubility and excellent stability. Because of their ecofriendly and high solubility, recently CDs are being used as aqueous phase corrosion inhibitors. Literature inspection suggests that CDs derived from citric acid, ammonium citrate, urea, L-histidine and thiourea exhibit remarkable anticorrosive activity. Spectroscopic techniques such as SEM, TEM, HRTEM, AFM, FT-IR, UV–vis, EDX and XPS are mainly employed to characterize the developed CDs. Literature outcomes suggest that N doped, N,S co-doped and chemically modified CDs exhibit higher anticorrosive activity than purified CDs. The CDs mostly behave as mixed- and interface-type inhibitors. Adsorption of CDs on metal surfaces mostly followed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Surface investigations principally SEM, AFM, EDX and XPS analyses are widely conducted to demonstrate the corrosion inhibition using CDs.

Section snippets

Carbon dots: Basics and anticorrosive applications

Carbon dots (CDs) or quantum dots (QDs) are zero-dimensional (OD) carbon based nanomaterials with a size below 20 nm [1], [2], [3]. CDs are new rising stars in the carbon family and have withdrawn significant awareness because of their various properties including extremely high and harmonize photoluminescence (PL), small size, high quantum yield, substantial biocompatibility, low toxicity, magnified adsorption ability, cost-effectivity, eco-friendliness, excellent electric conductivity, high

CDs as corrosion inhibitors for copper

Copper and its alloys are widely used for different industrial applications, especially for instruments of marine applications. However, these materials are exceedingly liable for corrosive damage. The implementation of organic molecules has been identified as the first line of defense against copper corrosion in marine environments. CDs are a new member of the carbon family and because of their environmental friendly nature and ability to dissolve in polar electrolytes, their employment for

Summary and outlook

From the present discussion it has been established that carbon dots (CDs) are new and rising anticorrosive materials of the carbon family. Literature study suggests that CDs in their purified and doped form exhibit remarkably high anticorrosive activity however literature on this topic is relatively scarce. Therefore, there are extreme demands of exploring CDs as anticorrosive materials. They generally show remarkably high activity at relatively concentration. In view of the high potential,

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Chandrabhan Verma, Akram Alfantazi, M. A. Quraishi collectively conceptualized and designed the work and were part of the manuscript write-up. All the authors collectively wrote and contributed to the entire manuscript and have agreed to its publication.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

References (33)

  • Y. Ye et al.

    A feasible method to improve the protection ability of metal by functionalized carbon dots as environment-friendly corrosion inhibitor

    Journal of Cleaner Production

    (2020)
  • Y. Ye et al.

    A high-efficiency corrosion inhibitor of N-doped citric acid-based carbon dots for mild steel in hydrochloric acid environment

    Journal of hazardous materials

    (2020)
  • Shuyun Cao et al.

    Nitrogen-doped carbon dots as high-effective inhibitors for carbon steel in acidic medium

    Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects

    (2021)
  • M. Cui et al.

    Nitrogen and sulfur Co-doped carbon dots as ecofriendly and effective corrosion inhibitors for Q235 carbon steel in 1 M HCl solution

    RSC Advances

    (2021)
  • J. Wang et al.

    A review of carbon dots in biological applications

    Journal of materials science

    (2016)
  • F. Zu et al.

    The quenching of the fluorescence of carbon dots: a review on mechanisms and applications

    Microchimica Acta

    (2017)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text