The corrosion rates in the presence of mimosa tannin as a low carbon steel corrosion inhibitor in sulfuric acid media, were measured by the weight loss method, in the range of temperatures from 20 to 60 degreesC. The Temkin, Frumkin and Freundlich isotherms were tested for their fit to the experimental data. The free energies and enthalpies for the adsorption process and the apparent activation energies, enthalpies and entropies of the dissolution process were determined. The fundamental thermodynamic functions were used to glean important information about the mimosa tannin inhibitory behavior. The results were explained in terms of chemical thermodynamics. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.