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

Abstract 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.