Enhancement of the corrosion resistance of mild steel with femtosecond laser- nanostructuring and CrCoNi medium entropy alloy coating

Abstract

In this work, the corrosion resistance of mild steel surface nanostructured with a femtosecond laser and coated with high corrosion resistant CrCoNi (CCN) medium entropy alloy through magnetron sputtering is studied. Substantial improvement in corrosion protection was achieved by applying a combination of high-power femtosecond laser surface nano-structuring at ambient conditions and thin-film coating with (CCN) medium entropy alloy. XRD analysis revealed that femtosecond laser structuring increases the susceptibility of the surfaces to Fe₂O₃ nucleation through oxidation. The surface wettability measurements and electrochemical polarization tests revealed that the combined approach of femtosecond laser structuring and magnetron sputter coating is the best for desired high corrosion resistance. Through this novel method, the resulting corrosion resistance of mild steel was improved by more than one-fold. The results are explained considering the detailed microstructural analysis. The presented findings open new possibilities for corrosion prevention using a combination of new powerful technologies that yield to unprecedented corrosion-inhibition efficacy.