Corrosion resistance of nanostructured TiB^sub 2^ films in 3% NACl solution

The paper examines the corrosion behavior of amorphous TiB^sub 2^ films 70-250 nm in thickness and amorphous-crystalline films with crystals 15-90 nm in size in 3% NaCI solution. It is shown that the corrosion resistance and passivation anodic potential increase with thickness of TiB^sub 2^ amorphous films. It is also established that TiB^sub 2^ films are oxidized through pitting corrosion. The corrosion instability of amorphous films is mainly due to their interaction with impurity (in particular, oxygen and carbon) structural inhomogeneities and of amorphous-crystalline films due to the interaction with amorphous-crystalline boundaries. The corrosion resistance of amorphous TiB^sub 2^ films is approximately 4000 times higher than that of bulk powder material and 8 to 10 times higher than that of amorphous-crystalline films.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]