Synthesized carbon dots with high N and S content as excellent corrosion inhibitors for copper in sulfuric acid solution

• The synthesized N,S-CDs contains N and S as high as 17% and 19%, respectively. • N,S-CDs was firstly as corrosion inhibitor for copper with excellent anti-corrosion performance. • The interaction bewteen N,S-CDs and copper mainly belong to the chemisorption. In this study, a novel N and S co-doped carbon dots (N,S-CDs) had been prepared with content of N and S as high as 17% and 19%, respectively. Combining electrochemical, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and micromorphology techniques to assess the inhibition performance of the N,S-CDs for copper in sulfuric acid solution. The new nanomaterials dispaly excellent effectiveness for copper (99.88%) at the concentration of 50 mg/L in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 solution, this work could provide a new idea for exploring environment-friendly and high efficient corrosion inhitiors for metal protection.