Thermodynamic and structural basis for electrochemical response of Cu–Zr based metallic glass

• Thermodynamic and structural basis for electrochemical response were proposed.
• La improves the corrosion resistance by inhibition of the selective dissolution.
• Corrosion of the MG responses well with thermodynamic and structural parameters.

Cu–Zr based metallic glasses were prepared by hyperquenching strategy to explore the thermodynamic and structural basis for electrochemical response. The thermodynamic parameters and the local atomic structure were obtained. Corrosion resistance in seawater was investigated via potentiodynamic polarization curve. The results indicate that increasing thermodynamic parameter values improves the corrosion resistance. The topological instability represented by the nearest neighbor atomic distance yields same tendency as the corrosion resistance with La addition.