Development of Fe-based glass former alloys for thermal spray coatings with optimized corrosion and wear properties

Corrosion and wear of alloys is a costly and hidden safety risk for components in petrochemical, agroindustry, and mining activities, which are key segments in Brazil and in many countries. Accelerating the development of high performance and durable ferrous alloys and their insertion into engineering structural applications has never been more important. Glass former steels have drawn considerable attention in recent years, due to the remarkable combinations of strength and degradation control that can be achieved by tailoring corrosion and wear resistances, which places these alloys amongst the durable ferrous alloy ever developed. Recent results from our group indicate that coatings using these alloys can be produced from commercial grade precursors and industrially available thermal spraying routes. The development of Fe-based bulk metallic glass (BMG) alloys for degradation control will open the door to next-generation coatings with unprecedented combinations of corrosion and wear resistances. This work summarizes the development of Fe-based glassy coatings for corrosion and wear control performed in our research group in the last 17 years covering: I) glass forming ability of alloys, II) development of Fe-based glass former alloys, III) thermal spraying of Fe-based glass former alloys, and IV) scientific and technological impacts of this research. (author)