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REVIEW ARTICLE

Development of corrosion inhibitors and nanocontainers for self-healing epoxy coatings: A review

Joghee Manivannan1 ,  Kalaiselvan Shanmugam2*
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1 Department of Chemistry, V.S.B. College of Engineering Technical Campus, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Department of Chemistry, Rathinam Technical Campus, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
EER, 025220043 https://doi.org/10.36922/EER025220043
Received: 29 May 2025 | Revised: 20 July 2025 | Accepted: 25 August 2025 | Published online: 10 September 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Self-healing coatings are composed of anti-corrosive polymers that can recover from any damage caused to the coating film and regain their original performance. One of the methods for preparing self-healing coatings is by incorporating a healing agent stored in nanocontainers. When there is damage to the coating film, the nanocontainer ruptures due to the mechanical impact. It releases the healing agents, which form a protective film via polymerization over the damaged part, thereby protecting against corrosion. The second method for preparing self-healing coatings involves the embedment of corrosion inhibitors (healing agent) into a nanocontainer. Upon damage, the inhibitor is released into the exposed part of the film and retards corrosion reactions occurring at the defective part of the metal surface. The two components responsible for the self-healing functions are the nanocontainers and the corrosion inhibitors (polymerizable material). This article provides a detailed report on the development of several types of corrosion inhibitors and nanocontainers, their properties, and applications as self-healing coating materials, including their advantages and limitations.

Keywords
Epoxy resin
Corrosion inhibitors
Nano materials
Polymerization
Biomaterials
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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