Corrosion behavior and porous structure formation of sputtered Cu–Zr nanostructured films

The corrosion behavior of sputtered Cu–Zr nanostructured thin films (the grain sizes: 10–20 nm) was investigated in 0.1 mol/L HCl solution using electrochemical and surface analysis techniques. The corrosion properties and the corroded surface morphologies of the Cu–Zr nanostructured films depend strongly on the alloy compositions. A model has been proposed to clarify the competition between the dissolution of Zr and the rearrangement of Cu on the electrode surface, in order to explain the formation of porous structure after corrosion. A uniformly porous surface is formed when the process of the selective dissolution of Zr and the rearrangement of Cu reaches an equilibrium state.