Enhancing the Corrosion Resistance Profile of Zirconium‐Based Amorphous Alloy Through Oxygen Ion Implantation

The corrosion is one of the prime factors responsible for losses/degradations occurring in the materials. The zirconium‐based amorphous alloys were investigated for assessing their robustness against corrosion. Corrosion behavior under pristine and oxygen‐implanted conditions was compared in three acidic media. To study the effect of fluence on corrosion resistance, implantation was performed at three fluence rates, with the highest fluence (3 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 ) showing the best corrosion resistance. The appearance of crystalline phases subjected to the oxygen ion implantation was identified and verified using grazing incidence X‐ray diffraction (GIXRD), field‐emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) micrographs, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Quantitative EDS analysis indicated a systematic increase in surface oxygen concentration from 0 at.% to 31.18 at.% with increasing fluence. Oxygen implantation at 3 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 resulted in a significant reduction in corrosion current density (I corr ). It is believed that the study paves the way towards improving the corrosion resistance of amorphous alloys by means of the implantation method.