综述了碳点的合成路径、改性方法及其在腐蚀防护领域的应用，重点阐述了碳点作为缓蚀剂及其在自修复、自预警等智能防腐涂层方向应用的国内外最新研究进展。首先，分析和探讨了杂原子掺杂型、有机分子修饰型以及生物质衍生型碳点缓蚀剂的缓蚀机理、优势及不足。其次，介绍了基于碳点的本征和外援自修复涂层、腐蚀预警涂层的设计思路及自修复、自预警机制。最后，提出了碳点在缓蚀剂和智能防腐涂层中应用所存在的问题，并对其未来发展前景进行了讨论。未来应秉持绿色、高效理念，进一步优化碳点的制备工艺，深入研究其在缓蚀、涂层自修复及腐蚀预警中的关键作用，以期早日实现工业应用。

Corrosion control and protection plays an essential role in ensuring the safety service of metal materials in various complicated environments. As the concept of sustainable development gradually gained popularity, it has become a consensus in the field of metal corrosion and protection to improve or develop green and low-toxicity anti-corrosion materials or corrosion control methods. Carbon dots (CDs) are novel zero-dimensional carbon nanomaterials with various fascinating properties, such as wide raw material sources, various preparation methods, environmental friendliness, facile surface modification and strong fluorescence properties, which have gained widespread attentions. For instance, CDs have been regarded as a kind of promising corrosion inhibitors, possessing abundant groups that can be adsorbed onto the surface of metal substrates to alleviate metal destruction in acidic or neutral corrosive medium. In addition, CDs can be used to construct intelligent corrosion protection coatings with self-healing and corrosion-reporting functions.