Corrosion protection of epoxy coatings contained with phytic acid-doped polyaniline (PANI-PA) for Q235 carbon steel was studied in this work. Synthesized PANI-PA particles were characterized by XPS, TGA, and FT1R, respectively. The coating performance was investigated by OCP, EIS, and SVET, respectively. The experimental results show that the concentration of PANI-PA has a significant influence to the barrier effect of the epoxy coating. Epoxy coating loaded with 2 wt.% PANI-PA has the best protection ability and self-healing function to a certain degree. The self -healing function of PANI-PA is attributed to the synergistic effect of the passivation of PANI and the chelation of the dedoped phytic acid ions with iron ions. Therefore, PANI-PA can be used as an effective anticorrosion pigment in future. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.