Recently, laser additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have emerged as a promising
alternative for the synthesis of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) with massively increased freedom in part
size and geometry, thus extending their economic applicability of this material class. Nevertheless,
porosity, compositional inhomogeneity, and crystallization display themselves to be the emerging
challenges for this processing route. The impact of these “defects” on the surface reactivity and
susceptibility to corrosion was seldom investigated but is critical for the further development of
3D-printed BMGs. This work compares the surface reactivity of cast and additively manufactured
(via laser powder bed fusion—LPBF) Cu47Ti33Zr11Ni6Sn2Si1 metallic glass after 21 days of immersion in a corrosive HCl solution. The cast material presents lower oxygen content, homogeneous
chemical distribution of the main elements, and the surface remains unaffected after the corrosion
experimentation based on vertical scanning interferometry (VSI) investigation. On the contrary, the
LPBF material presents a considerably higher reactivity seen through crack propagations on the
surface. It exhibits higher oxygen content, heterogeneous chemical distribution, and presence of
defects (porosity and cracks) generated during the manufacturing process