In this study, three new non-ionic surfactants containing more than one active site and their nanohybrid’s derivatives were characterized and synthesized as effective corrosion inhibitors against steel using a new environmentally friendly protocol synthesis and traditional methods. All the newly prepared non-ionic surfactants were confirmed by Fourier infrared (FTIR), NMR spectroscopy, and elemental analysis. Furthermore, the formation of the prepared nanoparticles and nanohybrid silver nanoparticles (HPDS, HPDO, and HPDE) were confirmed using ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was also used to characterize AgNPs and nanohybrid’s derivatives (HPDS, HPDO, and HPDE). The molecules exhibited excellent corrosion inhibitive performance in the acid medium with the nanohybrid’s molecules achieving 98.8, 93.7, and 99.9 % at 200 ppm, for LANH, OANH, and SANH, respectively. The nanohybrid’s inhibitors described in this paper show better efficacy than the inhibitors mentioned in the previous papers because they achieved a very excellent inhibition efficiency of up to 99.9 % by environmentally friendly methods and at the lowest possible cost. In addition, it has the advantage that it is compatible with many complex mixtures because it remains neutral in aqueous solutions, which makes it good at inhibiting corrosion of steel in acidic medium and important in oil and gas industry. The molecules were found to exhibit chemisorption on mild steel surface in acid media and fit the Langmuir adsorption isotherms with free energies of adsorption of -38.79, -36.52, and -38.46 kJ/mol for the LANH, OANH, and SANH, respectively. Similarly, the molecular level adsorption studies derived from density functional theory resulted in theoretical adsorption energies of -364.7, -385.6, and -427.9 kcal/mol for the nanohybrid’s molecules, indicating the strong adsorption and consequently higher suppression of mild steel corrosion by the compounds.