Corrosion resistance of magnesium alloy surfaces substantially upgraded by gradient energy irradiation of femtosecond lasers

The poor corrosion resistance of magnesium (Mg) alloys is known to constitute a major obstacle to their practical applications. In this work, we proposed an approach of femtosecond laser multi-grid-scanning with the gradual decreasing energy fluence, to modulate the surface oxide properties for the anti-corrosion performance enhancement. This kind of laser processing can significantly increase the oxide passivation layer thickness by more than 100 times compared with the bare sample, and improve the oxygen content on the material surface to as high as 55.87 %. Simultaneously, the available size of MgO nanograins is further refined and has more spatially uniform distribution. Moreover, the massive production of micro/nano-structures by the femtosecond laser irradiation tends to promote the surface into the superhydrophobic with a contact angle of CA=162 ± 2 ° and a slide angle of SA=1.5 ± 0.5 °. As a result, the obtained optimal values for the corrosion current density and the annual corrosion rate are reduced to I _corr = 0.5 μA/cm ² and CR = 7×10 ⁻³ mm/y, respectively, more than 2 orders of magnitude lower than the bare sample. Such a method provides an efficient strategy to enhance the corrosion resistance of metal surfaces for future applications.