3.4. Corrosion resistance propertyFig. 9 displays the potentiodynamic anodic polarization curves of the samples in the 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. Comparing to the original substrate, the corrosion potential of all the laser transformation hardened samples showed the positive-shift, indicating that the corrosionresistance property of pre-hardened AISI P20 steel had been improved by LTH. Combining with the microstructure of original substrate and laser transformation hardened region discussed above, the reasons of this phenomenon could be divided into three aspects: (a) The large potential difference between ferrite (poor carbon phase) and pearlite (rich carbon phase) grains made it easily form corroding microcells and increase the trend of anodic dissolution. In contrast, the small potential difference between martensite grains weakened the driving force of electrochemical corrosion; (b) Martensite enhanced the compactness of the passivation film (a thin film formed by oxidation in air that adheres tightly to a metal surface) and reduced the internal stress accumulating,hence cracks and holes can hardly be produced to aggravate corrosion extent; (c) With the continuous dissolution of carbides during the heating process, more Cr atoms were precipitated out from carbides, which was the main element to improve the corrosion resistance property. The increase of Cr atom content was conductive to the balance of Cr content between the poor and rich Cr regions. Cr could also reduce the sensitive of intergranular corrosion and improve the repair ability of steel passivating film [25–27]. For the laser transformation hardened samples, the corrosion resistance property had been improved in different degrees with varied laser parameters, especially the sample with 1.8 kW 3 mm/s possessed the best corrosion resistance property. In contrast, the sample with 1.7 kW 3 mm/s possessed the worst corrosion resistance property because some of Cr atoms were still entrapped in the residual carbides. Comparing with the sample with 1.8 kW 3 mm/s and the sample with 1.8 kW 4 mm/s, both of them showed less distinct carbide particles. However, the high scanning velocity reduced the interactiontime between laser beam and material, resulting in more undissolved carbides than the sample with 1.8 kW 3 mm/s. Therefore,Cr atoms in the sample with 1.8 kW 4 mm/s played a weaker role in thepassivation film than that in the sample with 1.8 kW 3 mm/s.