Corrosion behavior of amorphous/nanocrystalline Al-Cr-Fe film deposited by double glow plasmas technique

In order to improve the corrosion resistance of AZ31 magnesium alloy,the amorphous/nanocrystal Al-Cr-Fe film has been successfully prepared on AZ31 magnesium alloy by double glow plasma tech-nology.The amorphous/nanocrystalline consists of two different regions,i.e.,an amorphous layer on outmost surface and an underlying lamellar nanocrystalline layer with a grain size of less than 10 nm.The corrosion behavior of amorphous/nanocrystalline Al-Cr-Fe film in 3.5% NaCl solution is investi-gated using an electrochemical polarization measurement.Compared with the AZ31 magnesium alloy,the amorphous/nanocrystalline Al-Cr-Fe film exhibits more positive corrosion potentials and lower corrosion current densities than that of AZ31 magnesium alloy.XPS measurement reveals that the passive film formed on the Al-Cr-Fe film after the anodic polarization tests is strongly enriched in Cr2O3,Fe2O3 and Al2O3 at outer surface of the film and in the inner layer consists of Cr2O3,FeO and Al2O3.