Corrosion–wear behaviour of thermal sprayed nanostructured FeCu/WC–Co coatings

The corrosion and corrosion–wear behaviour of a thermal sprayed nanostructured FeCu/WC–Co coating were investigated in a Hank's solution and compared to stainless steel AISI 304 and nanostructured WC–Co coatings. Electrochemical noise and potentiodynamic polarization measurements were conducted along with an ex situ scanning electron microscopy to unfold the response of these materials under these corrosive and corrosion–wear test conditions. The multiphase structure of the FeCu/WC–Co coating induces a complex corrosion behaviour. Under corrosion–wear conditions, the nanostructured FeCu/WC–Co coating exhibits a depassivation/repassivation behaviour comparable to the behaviour of stainless steel AISI 304 and nanostructured WC–Co coatings.