While there is widespread use of organic molecules for prevention of corrosion in aqueous solution, their use in protective coatings has been restricted. Their effectiveness in protective coatings depends primarily on the carrier used to introduce the organic corrosion inhibitor into the coating, the molecular features of the corrosion inhibitor and the transport of the corrosion inhibitor to the active corrosion site. Organic corrosion inhibitors by themselves are difficult to incorporate into protective coatings due to differences in the specific gravities between the resins, other additives and the organic corrosion inhibitors themselves. In addition, most of the effective corrosion inhibitors contain functional groups that react with the resins, locking them into the coating matrix where they are not available to migrate to the corrosion site. To address this surface modified nanoparticles have been developed as novel carriers for organic corrosion inhibitors. Also, predictive molecular descriptors for use in designing new organic corrosion inhibitors has been created.