Corrosion of metals is an electrochemical process of degradation that occurs in the atmosphere with an annual cost estimate of tens of billions of dollars amounting to about 1–3% of the gross national product in developed countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom. A variety of methods available for metal protection are dependent on the nature and environment of the metal. This book deals with the use of conducting polymers (CPs) as a novel method for corrosion protection.

The book is divided into seven chapters, with chapter 1 giving an overview of the developments in anticorrosion technology that has evolved using conducting polymers. In this chapter, there is a historical introduction to the discovery of conducting polymers by H. Shirakawa, Alan J. Heeger, and Alan G. MacDiarmid that resulted in a Nobel prize. The chemical structures and conductivities of CPs such as polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene, poly(para-phenylene vinylene), and polycarbazole are discussed, as well as charge transport in these CPs based on solitons, polarons, and bipolarons. The next few pages contain examples of applications of CPs, a brief introduction to corrosion of metals and the methodology for its prevention, chromate-based anticorrosive coatings, and the occupational health hazards associated with chromates. Subsequent material focuses on smart green, self-repairing coatings explained through diagrams. This chapter concludes with a summary of possible mechanisms by which CPs can protect metals against corrosion. Chapter 2 includes the principles of electrochemical corrosion. The material in this section lacks clarity; the references given at the end of this chapter would be more useful for understanding the principles. Chapter 3 includes a survey of the literature on corrosion prevention using conducting polymers based upon recent work. Here, the emphasis is on material synthesis, usefulness of having CPs on the top coat as a protective coating, caution to be applied on the metal substrates, and a consideration of the nature of the corrosive environment. Various protective coatings are covered. Chapter 4 discusses the preparation of those protective coatings. Chapter 5 contains the basics of corrosion-rate measurements through weight loss over time, polarization techniques involving Tafel measurements, potentiodynamic techniques, cyclic polarization, linear polarization resistance, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Chapter 6 deals with strategies adopted for improving the protective efficiency of the CP coatings, followed by a discussion of the problems encountered in CP coatings on corrosion protection. Chapter 7 is a one-page concluding chapter about the future trends in this emerging technology.

This book is well organized with reasonable coverage of the existing literature. It also contains an index and a list of abbreviations used in the book. There are an adequate number of tables and figures. This is a specialized book that would be useful for researchers in the field of CPs who have knowledge of corrosion.

Reviewer: K.S.V. Santhanam is a professor in the School of Chemistry and Materials Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology, USA.