Abstract: Engineering equipment operating long-term in marine environments often suffers from the synergistic degradation of wear and corrosion, leading to substantial resource losses. However, traditional alloys face challenges in achieving concurrent enhancements in both wear and corrosion resistance, underscoring the urgent need for the development of new integrated wear-corrosion-resistant materials. In this study, (CoCrNi)₈₇M₈B₄C₁(M: V/Nb) composite coatings were fabricated using laser cladding. The introduction of reinforcing phases significantly improved the wear resistance of the coatings, with the Nb-containing coating forming a dual-phase strengthened structure that exhibited an exceptionally low wear rate of only 1.28 × 10⁴ mm³ N^-1 m^-1. Due to the coherent phase interfaces and high solid solubility of metal elements in the M₂₃C₆, both coatings can form highly stable passive films in corrosive environments, with corrosion current densities of 178 and 182 nA cm^-2, respectively. The passive film of Nb-containing coating exhibits higher impedance as Nb can increase the internal electric field strength within the passive film, enhance the film thickness, and lower the potential difference at the film/solution interface, thus reducing the dissolution rate of the passive film. It was also found that corrosion leads to different wear mechanisms of the Nb-containing coating under dry friction and tribocorrosion conditions. This study, through interface regulation combined with the characteristic composition of high-entropy alloys (HEAs), the design of coherent interfaces, and high solid solubility ceramic-reinforced coatings, offers a novel strategy for developing wear-corrosion resistant materials.

Key words: High-entropy alloy, Laser cladding, Wear, Corrosion, Passive film, Tribocorrosion