In this paper, polyaniline (PANI) surface with biomimetic superhydrophobic structures was first prepared by the nanocasting technique and applied in corrosion protection coatings. First of all, PANI was synthesized by conventionally oxidative polymerization of aniline with ammonium persulfate (APS) as oxidant in 1.0 M HCl aqueous solution. Subsequently, PANI with superhydrophobic surface (SH-PANI) of biomimetic natural leaf was fabricated, using PDMS as negative template, through casting onto cold rolled steel (CRS) electrode. Morphology of as-prepared PANI superhydrophobic surface was investigated by SEM. The contact angle of water droplet on sample surface can be increased from similar to 90 degrees of flat PANI surface (F-PANI) to similar to 156 degrees of SH-PANI. It should be noted that the SH-PANI was found to reveal better corrosion protection as compared to the F-PANI, base on a series of standard electrochemical corrosion measurements in saline conditions. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.