Self-Healing Anticorrosion Coatings Based on pH-Sensitive Polyelectrolyte/Inhibitor Sandwichlike Nanostructures.

An anticorrosion layer of a smart polymer coating is developed. The nature and properties of the coating simultaneously provide three mechanisms of corrosion protection: passivation of the metal degradation by controlled release of an inhibitor, buffering of pH changes at the corrosive area by polyelectrolyte layers, and self-curing of the film defects due to the mobility of the polyelectrolyte constituents in the layer-by-layer assembly.