ABSTRACT
Metal corrosion has been one of the most urgent problems bringing about great economic loss and life threats worldwide. Corrosion inhibitors can prevent metal from corrosion when directly added to corrosive media, which is a low-cost and efficient strategy towards corrosion protection. However, the corrosion protection ability cannot be durable without continuous additions of corrosion inhibitors. Micro/nano-containers encapsulated with corrosion inhibitors offer promising opportunities for delaying the corrosion process and prolonging the service period, regarded as smart corrosion inhibitors that can respond to stimuli spontaneously and release on demand. The review focuses on the diverse ambient stimuli and actively responsive mechanisms of smart corrosion inhibitors. Furthermore, the present drawbacks and underexplored possibilities of current research studies are pointed out, and future perspectives are prospected for smart corrosion inhibitor applications.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51971062), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BE2019679), the Technological Innovation of key Industry of Suzhou (SYG202116), the Open Research Fund of Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Advanced Metallic Materials (AMM2021A01) and the Research Fund of Nanjing Institute of Technology (QKJ202101).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).