Layered materials as nanocontainers for active corrosion protection: A brief review

Over the past years, the use of layered materials such as clay minerals, layered double hydroxides, and layered hydroxide salts, as nanocontainers of corrosion inhibitors has grown, and these materials have proved to be very advantageous to improve the corrosion protection of metallic surfaces. The layered materials are especially advantageous for this application due to their capacity of not only releasing corrosion inhibitors on-demand to protect the metal but also capturing ionic aggressive species from the medium. The diversity of corrosion inhibitors species that can be intercalated in the interlayer space of these materials and the possibility to synthesize different layered materials (composition, structure, and morphology), using different methods, provide a high versatility to produce efficient protective systems, which are elucidated and discussed in this review. Moreover, a section on future perspectives is presented, indicating promising and still underexplored possibilities for future development trends in using layered materials for corrosion protection applications.