Large-scale electrochemical fabrication of nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots and their application as corrosion inhibitor for copper

Abstract: A novel micro-zone electrochemical exfoliation method for the large-scale fabrication of nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots (N–CQDs) from pre-baked carbon anode (PCA) in ammonium bicarbonate electrolyte has been demonstrated. Therefore, an efficient (90.18 wt% utilization rate of raw material and high-yield conversion of 1.87 g_(N-GQDs)g_(PCA)⁻¹ due to oxidation weight gain) and environment-friendly mass production (9.36 g in one pot) for N–CQDs really becomes promising and practical. Moreover, the N-CQDs with abundant functional groups and higher nitrogen content (30.18 at%) present strong dispersion stability and enhanced interfacial adsorption with copper substrates. By virtue of the excellent performance, we successfully applied the N–CQDs as an effective inhibitor to alleviate the corrosion of copper. Results showed the corrosion inhibition efficiency of the self-assembled N–CQDs film on the copper reached up to 96.32% at 150 mg/L N–CQDs. The mechanism for the realization of large-scale preparation and self-assembly of N–CQDs was also proposed. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]