A combinatorial study of the corrosion and mechanical properties of Zn–Al material library fabricated by ion beam sputtering

A combinatorial method was utilized to fabricate a Zn–Al material library by ion beam sputtering. The material library was produced by manipulating the position of substrate and moving shutters to deposit multilayer metal films. As-deposited films were annealed at low temperatures to form through-thickness homogenous films. Different annealing conditions were studied and high quality alloy films could be obtained by annealing at 370 °C. Electrochemical corrosion properties of the material library were evaluated by a modified tape test. Results of the electrochemical tests show that the Zn–Al film with a composition of 72.6 wt% Al has the best anti-corrosion properties in the material library. Nanoindentation tests were conducted to investigate the mechanical behaviour. Zn–Al films containing a high content of Al possess better mechanical properties with a high hardness and elastic module.