Hydrophobic and corrosion resistance properties of the electrochemically etched Zr-based bulk metallic glasses after annealing and cryogenic thermal cycling treatment

Abstract

The effects of annealing and cryogenic thermal cycling treated on hydrophobic properties of Zr-based bulk metallic glasses surfaces fabricated by electrochemical etching were studied. The cryogenic thermal cycling on leads to poor corrosion performance for heat-treated metallic samples, while the annealing treatment induces the improved corrosion performance. Under the same electrochemical etching process, the etched sample surface is covered by dense coral-like micro-nano composite structures after cryogenic thermal cycling treatment for 30 cycles, and achieves superhydrophobic. However, there almost no nanoscale structures appear on the sample surface heat-treated at 702 K which results in the poor hydrophobic properties. Superhydrophobic film can generate a corrosion protection due to the existence of micro-nano composite structures in the samples.