Structural Features and Corrosion Resistance of Fe66Cr10Nb5B19 Metallic Glass Coatings Obtained by Detonation Spraying

In the present work, Fe66Cr10Nb5B19 metallic glass coatings deposited by detonation spraying (DS) on carbon steel substrates were structurally characterized and tested in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solutions with pH values of 3.0, 5.5, and 10.0 under potentiodynamic polarization conditions. The coatings had low porosity (2.9-4.5%) and showed a predominantly amorphous structure. The concentration of an amorphous phase in the detonation coatings was 97.5-99.5 wt.%. Such high concentrations were not observed in thermally sprayed Fe-Cr-Nb-B coatings obtained by other research groups. Under the test conditions, the coatings exhibited low corrosion current densities (of the order of 10-6 A cm-2) and low passive current densities (below 10-3 A cm-2) while showing extended passive regions (stable within 1.5 V from the corrosion potential). The Fe66Cr10Nb5B19 coatings produced by DS showed a much better corrosion resistance than the carbon steel substrate. Furthermore, the corrosion resistance of the Fe66Cr10Nb5B19 DS coatings was superior to that of flame-sprayed or high-velocity oxygen fuel-sprayed Fe-Cr-Nb-B coatings reported to date. These results open new prospects for the use of affordable and Cr-lean Fe-Cr-Nb-B glassy coatings for carbon steel protection, where chloride-induced corrosion is the major degradation risk, such as metallic components for marine applications.