The inhibitive effect of thiourea's (TU) alkyl derivative-allyl-thiourea (ATU) on the corrosion behaviors of bulk nanocrystalline and conventional polycrystalline ingot iron (BNII & CPII) was tested. Results indicate that BNII is less prone to get corrosive than its coarse grain counterpart in blank 1 mol L-1 HCl at room temperature. When CPII and BNII were immersed for a very short time in the corrosive solution inhibited by ATU, namely, 5 min, no inductive loop appears at different concentrations. When time became prolonged, for BNII, a Warburg impedance appeared. Inhibited by ATU, the electrodes composed of the samples are polarized anodically during the potentiodynamic polarization tests, the phenomena of desorption happens at the concentration of 100 mg L-1, but the variation between potential E-des is obvious. The inhibition effect of ATU for BNII is very limited by comparison with CPII in dilute HCl. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.