Smart corrosion inhibitors for controlled release: a review

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Corrosion inhibitors
• micro/nano-containers
• stimuli response
• controlled release
• long-term corrosion protection

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).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Research Fund of Nanjing Institute of Technology [grant number QKJ202101]; the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 51971062]; Open Research Fund of Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Advanced Metallic Materials [grant number AMM2021A01]; Technological Innovation of key Industry of Suzhou [grant number SYG202116]; Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province: [grant number BE2019679].