The high temperature corrosion behavior of sputtered nanocrystalline K38 coating with and without yttrium addition under mixed molten salt film in air was investigated. Accelerated corrosion occurred on the coating without yttrium (Y) addition locally after 60 h exposure at 900 °C, which resulted in negative weight gain in kinetics. A uniform and protective alumina scale formed on surface of the coating containing yttrium in comparison. Y enriched particle as corrosion product was observed on the top of alumina scale. The results indicated the beneficial influence of Y on the chemical stability of the protective scale in the presence of chloride. The mechanism was discussed.
Keywords: hot corrosion; nanocrystalline coating; sputtering; yttrium.