A Coat of Many Functions

摘要

The past decade has seen great interest in the development of smart materials with autonomic functionalities. Among them smart coatings have a special niche, filling the position at the interface between bulk solid substrate and liquid or gaseous external environment. This makes them uniquely well suited for such applications as corrosion protection, detection and delivery of bioactive species, and anti-fouling. They can provide either autonomic response to fluctuations and variations of the coating integrity (disruption, melting) or stimulated response to changes in the external environment (magnetic or electromagnetic fields).