Corrosion continues to be a major concern in industrial systems, causing material degradation and raising maintenance costs. In recent years, plant-derived corrosion inhibitors have gained interest as environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional chemical treatments. In this work, ethanolic extracts from the leaves of
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Corrosion continues to be a major concern in industrial systems, causing material degradation and raising maintenance costs. In recent years, plant-derived corrosion inhibitors have gained interest as environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional chemical treatments. In this work, ethanolic extracts from the leaves of
Citrus limon (L.) Osbeck and
Eucalyptus globulus Labill. were evaluated as green corrosion inhibitors for C45 carbon steel in 1 M HCl solution. The extracts were prepared by continuous Soxhlet extraction and characterized through antioxidant activity measurements using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl DPPH radical scavenging method, gravimetric (weight loss) tests, and electrochemical techniques including potentiodynamic polarization. In addition, the extraction parameters were optimized using a face-centered central composite design (CCD) within a response surface methodology (RSM) framework, and the resulting models were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The effects of inhibitor concentration and temperature on corrosion inhibition performance were systematically examined. The antioxidant assay indicated that
E. globulus extract reached a scavenging activity above 95% at 1000 mg/L, while
C. limon extract showed moderate activity around 71%. Gravimetric tests revealed that both extracts reduced the corrosion rate, with optimal inhibition efficiencies of approximately 67% for
C. limon (at 0.3 g/100 mL) and 82% for
E. globulus (at 1.0 g/100 mL). Beyond these optimal concentrations, a decline in performance was observed, suggesting surface saturation. The statistical optimization showed that the
C. limon response model was solvent-driven (R
2 = 92.05%), whereas the
E. globulus model was curvature-driven (R
2 = 95.45%), with contrasting response surface topographies. Electrochemical measurements confirmed that both extracts acted as mixed-type inhibitors, shifting the corrosion potential toward less negative values and reducing the corrosion current density. Overall,
E. globulus extract demonstrated superior performance across all methods, and both extracts represent promising candidates for sustainable corrosion protection in acidic industrial environments.
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