Gum Arabic as an environmentally sustainable polymeric anticorrosive material: Recent progresses and future opportunities

Gum Arabic (GA) is a plant exudate, consisting of glycoproteins (proteins with carbohydrate co-factor or prosthetic group) and polysaccharides mainly consisting of galactose and arabinose. Because of its polymeric nature and tendency to dissolve in water, GA is widely used as anticorrosive materials, especially in the aqueous electrolytes. GA contains various electron rich polar sites through which they easily get adsorbed on metallic surface and behaves as effective anticorrosive materials. Because of its natural and biological origin, GA is regarded as one of the environmental sustainable and edible alternatives to traditional toxic corrosion inhibitors. Present review piece of writing aims to illustrate the assortment of literatures on gum Arabic as a corrosion inhibitor. Limitation of traditional organic corrosion inhibitors and advantages of using GA as an environmental sustainable alternative have also been described along with the mechanism of corrosion inhibition.