Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria 2, 20133 Milano, Italy.
Molecules. 2018 Dec 23;24(1):48. doi: 10.3390/molecules24010048.
Over the past decade, green chemistry has been emphasizing the importance of protecting the environment and human health in an economically beneficial manner aiming at avoiding toxins and reducing wastes. The field of metallic materials degradation, generally faced by using toxic compounds, found a fertile research field in green chemistry. In fact, the use of inhibitors is a well-known strategy when metal corrosion needs to be prevented, controlled, or retarded. Green inhibitors are biodegradable, ecologically acceptable and renewable. Their valorization expands possible applications in industrial fields other than 'waste to energy' in the perspective of circular economy. Although lot of experimental work has been done and many research papers have been published, the topic of green inhibitors is still an open issue. The great interest in the field expanded the research, resulting in high numbers of tested molecules. However, the most frequently adopted approaches are conventional and, hence, not suitable to fully characterize the potential efficacy of inhibitors. All the mentioned aspects are the object of the present review and are meant as a constructive criticism to highlight the weak points of the green inhibitors field as to re-evaluate the literature and address the future research in the field that still lacks rationalization.
在过去的十年中，绿色化学一直强调以经济有益的方式保护环境和人类健康的重要性，旨在避免毒素和减少废物。金属材料降解领域通常使用有毒化合物，在绿色化学中找到了一个富有成效的研究领域。事实上，当需要防止、控制或延缓金属腐蚀时，使用抑制剂是一种众所周知的策略。绿色抑制剂是可生物降解的、生态上可接受的和可再生的。它们的增值扩大了其在循环经济视角下除“废物转化为能源”之外的工业领域的可能应用。尽管已经进行了大量的实验工作并发表了许多研究论文，但绿色抑制剂的主题仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。该领域的浓厚兴趣扩大了研究范围，导致测试的分子数量众多。然而，最常采用的方法是传统的，因此不适合充分表征抑制剂的潜在功效。所有提到的方面都是本综述的对象，旨在作为建设性的批评，以突出绿色抑制剂领域的弱点，重新评估文献，并解决该领域仍缺乏合理化的未来研究。
