Magnesium thin films possessing new corrosion resistance by RF magnetron sputtering method

Magnesium thin films were prepared on cold-rolled steel substrates by RF magnetron sputtering technique. The influence of argon gas pressure and substrate bias voltage on their crystal orientation and morphology of the coated films were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction, respectively. And the effect of crystal orientation and morphology of magnesium films on corrosion behaviors was estimated by measuring anodic polarization curves in deaerated 3%NaCl solution. From the experimental results, all the sputtered magnesium films showed obviously good corrosion resistance to compare with 99.99% magnesium target of the sputter-evaporation metal. Finally it was shown that the Corrosion-resistance of magnesium films can be improved greatly by controlling the crystal orientation and morphology with effective use of the plasma sputtering technique