Superhydrophobic Fe-based amorphous coating fabricated by detonation spraying with excellent anti-corrosion and self-cleaning properties

Amorphous alloys without crystalline defects (dislocation, crystal boundary) are ideal hydrophobic coating materials due to their low surface energy. This work used a synergistic method of detonation spraying and surface modification to obtain the superhydrophobic Fe-based amorphous coatings with high hardness and dense structure on the Q 235 substrate. The results showed that the water contact angles (WCA) of the superhydrophobic coating was 160° ± 3.6°, and water droplets could bounce off the superhydrophobic coating surface, illustrating the excellent self-cleaning performance of coating. Notably, the corrosion current density ( i corr ) of the superhydrophobic coating further decreased by 2 orders of magnitude down to 8.008 × 10 −8 A·cm −2 compared to the as-deposited coating with 5.473 × 10 −6 A·cm −2 ; the corrosion potential ( E corr ) of the superhydrophobic coating shifted by 34 mV to the positive side compared with that of the as-deposited coating (− 310 mV). Likewise, the impedance modulus | Z | values of the superhydrophobic coating increased by nearly 2 orders of magnitude up to 1×10 5.6 compared to the as-deposited coating with 1×10 3.8 . Even through lasting immersion in NaCl for 10 days, | Z | values of the superhydrophobic coating were still much higher than those of the as-deposited coating. The superhydrophobic Fe-based amorphous coatings could respond to their applications under extreme conditions due to their excellent hydrophobicity and self-cleaning properties, illustrating their promising future in aerospace, automotive, and machinery industries. Graphical abstract