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.