Corrosion is a costly problem for military operations and civil industries. While most corrosion
initiates from localized corrosion such as pitting, failure directly caused by localized corrosion can be
very dangerous, as it is difficult to anticipate and prevent, and often occurs very suddenly. One way of
preventing these failures is with a coating that can detect and heal localized corrosion. pH and other
electrochemical changes are often associated with localized corrosion, so it is expected that materials
that are pH or otherwise electrochemical responsive can be used to detect and control corrosion. This
paper will review various pH and electrochemical responsive materials and their potential applications
in smart coatings for corrosion control. Current research results in this field will also be reported.