One step phase separation process to fabricate superhydrophobic PVC films and its corrosion prevention for AZ91D magnesium alloy

•Independent superhydrophobic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film was prepared by phase separation process.•The superhydrophobic PVC film showed excellent stability in acid, alkali and salt corrosive solutions.•This film was prepared on magnesium surface protecting it from corrosion.•This method was simple and universal. A one step, simple fabrication method to prepare independent superhydrophobic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) coating is reported in this paper. The rough surface structure and low surface energy could be simply obtained only by a phase separation process. The independent PVC superhydrophobic film was also applied on AZ91D magnesium alloy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), water contact angle measurements, electrochemical test and adhesion tests have been performed to characterize the surface morphology, wettability, anti-corrosion and adhesion strength of independent PVC film and superhydrophobic magnesium alloy respectively. The results indicated that whether it was the PVC film or superhydrophobic magnesium, they show static contact angles higher than 150°, excellent anti-corrosion effect and adhesion strength. We believed that the presented method could provide a straightforward and simple route to fabricate low-cost and anti-corrosion coating on various substrate materials. Moreover, this one step process may find potential application in the field of industry because of its simplicity and universality.