The emerging technical area referred to as “smart coatings” has stimulated a great deal of progress and debate. The debate centers around what exactly constitutes a smart coating. For this article, a smart coating will be a coating that can sense and respond to a stimulus in its environment (pressure, light, heat, etc.,) and react in a predictable and possibly reversible fashion. Variations on this definition will also be discussed.
The intent of this work is to discuss the definition of smart coatings and to give several examples of smart coatings. Materials that help in the design of smart coatings and some formulating strategies are discussed. An example of designing a practical smart coating using conventional materials is also covered.