Self-Healing Coatings

Abstract

Metal corrosion is a natural and inevitable process that imposes a lot of cost on many industries and can also have irreparable consequences. Several methods, such as cathodic protection, galvanizing, painting, and coatings, are available to prevent metal corrosion. Selection of the best corrosion prevention method depends on many factors including cost, effectiveness, type of metal, and corrosive media but it can be said that coatings are probably the most convenient method to prevent corrosion of metals due to the low cost, availability of raw materials, flexibility, and simplicity. Despite having many advantages, coatings are subject to problems such as cracking and degradation. Therefore, they must be repaired or replaced. Self-healing coating has been introduced and developed during the past decades as a very effective method to overcome the problems of traditional coatings. Self-healing means healing (recover/repair) internal damages automatically and autonomously. It is an amazing property that can fill cracks and small pinholes which leads to increased service lives of coatings. This chapter presents different strategies for fabrication of self-healing materials and explains their challenges and limitations. Furthermore, the use of self-healing materials in metal corrosion through different mechanisms is discussed, and published reports in this field are reviewed.