Fe-based
amorphous coatings are ideal materials for surface protection
due to their outstanding mechanical properties and corrosion resistance.
However, coating defects are inevitably formed during the preparation
of coatings by thermal spray technology, which seriously affects the
corrosion performance. Inspired by bionics, conceiving superhydrophobic
surfaces with liquid barrier properties has become a new idea for
the corrosion protection of metal surfaces. In this work, based on
surface hydroxylation, we designed a superhydrophobic Fe-based amorphous
coating with corrosion resistance by chemical etching combined with
a thermally driven preparation strategy. The obtained superhydrophobic
coatings exhibit liquid repellency (contact angle >150°) and
excellent corrosion resistance (corrosion current density and passive
current density reduced by 3 orders of magnitude). The results revealed
that the superhydrophobic behavior stems from the construction of
hydroxyl-induced surface micro-/nanomultilevel aggregates (cluster
structures). The hydrophobic agent layer deposited on the surface
of cluster aggregates and the nanoparticle elements that constitute
the clusters dominate the corrosion resistance of the coating. This
work provides an effective guide to the design of high-corrosion-resistant
Fe-based amorphous alloy coatings and promotes their engineering applications.