Corrosion behavior of HVOF sprayed hard face coatings in alkaline-sulfide solution

The paper focuses on the corrosion behavior of high velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) sprayed WC-17Co, WC-10Co-4Cr, Cr3C2-25NiCr coatings in alkaline-sulfide solution (S2−, 0.2 ml/L, pH = 10). Eighteen days of immersion test is carried out and corrosion rate analysis shows that the Cr3C2-NiCr coating of low porosity exhibits the best corrosion resistance. In alkaline-sulfide solutions, porosity, passive film and microgalvanic between hard phase and binder phase have significant effect on the corrosion behavior of coatings. The corrosion mainly occurs in binder phase from SEM, though WO3, WS2, Cr2S3 are detected in XPS. In WC-17Co coating, the binder phase Co transforms to Co oxides and serious corrosion can be observed in binder phase. WC-10Co-4Cr coatings suffer localized corrosion since galvanic corrosion occurs between locations with different solubilities of W in Co binder. Cr3C2-25NiCr coating shows slight corrosion with the formation of NiS/Ni2O3/Cr2O3from the binder and Cr2S3 from the hard phase. The results are verified by the polarization curves, which show the longest passive region and lowest Icorrosion of Cr3C2-25NiCr coating.