Abstract Corrosion inhibitors are widely used to control corrosion under the sweet and sour environments in oil and gas industries. More effective and environment friendly corrosion inhibitors need to be developed. This paper studies a new gemini imidazoline corrosion inhibitor, which two hydrocarbon chains and two headgroups are linked by a rigid spacer. The gemini imidazoline was synthesized through the reaction of oleic acid with triethylene tetramine at 2:1 molar ratio. The product was characterized by infrared spectroscopy, chromatography and mass spectroscopy. The performance of the gemini imidazoline on inhibition of CO2 corrosion was evaluated by linear polarization resistance in sparged beaker testing. Rotating wheel testing was performed to evaluate the film persistency of the test inhibitors. The results showed that corrosion inhibition of the gemini imidazoline was more effective at lower concentration than that of conventional imidazoline. The gemini imidazoline mixed with fatty acid also showed better film persistency than that of conventional imidazoline. The emulsion tendency of the gemini imidazoline was less than that of conventional imidazoline. The mechanism of the highly effective gemini imidazoline was studied. It showed that gemini imidazoline has much higher surface activity than that of conventional imidazoline. The critical micelle concentration is several times lower than that of conventional imidazoline. Hence, the new gemini imidazoline (GIM) corrosion inhibitor and its mixture give more effective corrosion inhibition at low concentration, which also has less environmental impact.