Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (SCMC) is one of the most promising scale inhibitors. In this study, the performance of SCMC in inhibiting the deposition of calcium carbonate on heat transfer surface at the temperatures ranging from 293 to 343 K was investigated by experiments, and the interaction between SCMC and calcite in the solution was explored by molecular dynamics simulation. The experimental results showed that the fouling resistance substantially decreases by adding the SCMC. The scale inhibition efficiency increases with the solution temperature, and the highest scale inhibition efficiency at 99.8% at 343 K. The simulated results showed that with the increase of the solution temperature, both the binding energy between SCMC and calcite plane and the probability of SCMC binding with calcium ions increase, which can effectively prevent the growth of calcium carbonate fouling on the heat transfer surface. Therefore, our computational results agree with the anti-scaling experimental phenomena. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.