Iron alloys are commonly used construction materials. Since they are often exposed to the weather, corrosion is an unavoidable process. This phenomenon leads to the formation of structural defects.

The massive annual cost of corrosion (over 3% of GDP of all industrialised countries) is the reason for the constant search for methods that could prevent it.

The paper titled Corrosion Resistance of Fe-Cr-Si Alloy Powders Prepared by Mechanical Alloying published by researchers from the Institute of Experimental Physics UWr, Magdalena Sobota,  Karolina Idczak, Robert Konieczny, and Rafał Idczak, in the scientific journal Coatings, describes the study of the anti-corrosion properties of two alloys of iron doped with chromium and silicon, in the form of microcrystalline powder.

To obtain materials resistant to oxidation, this study used the process of oxygen-induced surface segregation of dopant atoms. The chromium and silicon contents of both samples do not exceed 15% at.

The obtained results are very promising in the context of works on a new class of materials with good anti-corrosion properties.

The publication has been featured in the Open Access journal Coatings and was selected for the cover of the October issue of the journal.