Effect of gold oxide incorporation on electrochemical corrosion resistance of diamond-like carbon

Abstract Gold oxide nanoparticles were incorporated into diamond-like carbon (DLC) films in order to improve protection of AISI-1020 from electrochemical corrosion. The AuO x :DLC films were prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and were subsequently characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and electrochemistry measurements. The electrochemical corrosion performance of the AuO x :DLC coating was contrasted to AISI-1020 and DLC without AuO x coating. The electrochemical techniques that were utilized for this investigation were potentiodynamic and electrochemistry impedance spectroscopy. The electrochemical analysis indicated that AuO x :DLC films presented superior corrosion resistance as compared to DLC. This resulted in 99.8% and 96.8% protection efficiency respectively, when compared to AuO x :DLC and DLC coatings.