Received 31 August 2012; accepted 31 January 2013In this work we present the results obtained from the deposition of nano-structured bismuth coatings through DC pulsed unbalanced mag-netron sputtering. The coatings were grown on two substrates: silicon and AISI steel 316 L. The microstructure of the Bi coatings grownon silicon and the corrosion resistance of the Bi coatings grown on AISI steel were evaluated. The microstructure was evaluated by X-raydiffraction (XRD) and the corrosion resistance was characterized by means of polarization potentiodynamic and electrochemical impedancespectroscopy. Finally the morphology of the coatings was evaluated through scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). The XRD analysis indi-cates that the coatings are polycrystalline; the corrosion resistance tests indicate that the films with better corrosion resistance were depositedat 40 kHz. SEM micrographs show that the coatings are grown as granular form.Keywords: Pulsed unbalanced magnetron sputtering; bismuth coatings; corrosion.PACS: 81.15.Cd; 61.10.Nz; 68.37.-d; 81.65.Kn