Abstract: The corrosion inhibition and synergistic effects of three kinds of organic compounds containing oxygen (i.e. sorbitol, glucose and ascorbic acid) with sodium dodecyl benzene sulfate (SDBS) for the corrosion of steel rebar in 3.5% NaCl saturated Ca(OH)2 solution were investigated by using linear polarization, potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. Based on the quantum chemical calculations and hard and soft acids and bases (HSAB) principle, thecorrosion inhibition and synergistic mechanisms were discussed. The results indicated that the inhibition efficiency of compounds containing oxygen increased in the follow order of sorbitol < glucose < ascorbic acid, the highest inhibition efficiency of 96.9% was obtained for the inhibitor ascorbic acid, and had a positive correlation with their absolute hardness as Lewis bases in alkaline chloride solution. There were significant synergistic effects when three organic compounds mixed with SDBS in different proportions, among of them, the synergistic effect of sorbitol with SDBS was the best strong. Keywords: Steel rebar corrosion; Corrosion inhibitors; Synergistic effect; Quantum chemical calculation