Corrosion behavior of pulse laser deposited 2D nanostructured coating prepared by self-made h-BN target in salinity environment

Abstract Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) target was prepared by two step wet chemical reaction method using a nontoxic starting materials (urea and boric acid). Optimized annealing parameters (1600 °C for 2 h) and N2 environment are applied for pertinent growth of boron nitride nano powder. A mechanical procedure was acquired to convert this powder into pallet (target) for further analysis. The prepared target (white pallet) was used to fabricate the corrosion resisting h-BN nano-sheet coating using pulse laser deposition technique. A thick h-BN coating was deposited on SS 304 and Si substrates. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to characterize the coating for structural and morphological purpose. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXA) were employed to characterize the coating for surface properties and chemical composition purpose. However, Contact angle and electrochemical work station were employed for wetting and corrosion analysis tests. We find that pulsed laser deposition (PLD) grown h-BN coating shows the non-wetting (134.2°) and reduce corrosion rate by one order of magnitude compared to bare SS. On the basis of these results, the h-BN nano-sheet coating may be a promising candidate for corrosion resist application in (3.5% NaCl solution) salinity environment.