To further advance the mechanism of the inhibition provided by permanganate ions, highresolution XPS spectra were recorded from the surface of the alloys after their contact with the corrosion media for 1 h. Obtained XPS spectra are summarized in Fig. . Interestingly, the composition of the alloys did not significantly affect the chemistry of Mn-rich compounds on the surface, at the same time significantly affecting the results obtained for Mg and O lines. In the binding energy range corresponding to the Mg 1s (Fig. ), peaks assigned to magnesium carbonate, oxide and/or hydroxide species, were observed. For the AZ31-4Li and AZ31-8Li alloys, magnesium carbonate prevailed on the surface, supporting the results of the Raman spectroscopy (Fig. ). In turn, for the AZ31-12Li alloy, oxide/hydroxide species dominated on the surface. Deconvolution of Mn 2p peaks (Fig. ) revealed only one peak doublet with binding energies of 642.0 (Mn 2p3/2) and 653.9 eV (Mn 2p1/2), which was assigned to Mn(IV) oxide MnO2 , in line with the Raman data (Fig. ). Similar XPS spectra were obtained for all alloys and the relative amount of Mn-rich species on the surface was decreasing as 22, 21, and 16 at.% for the AZ31-4Li, AZ31-8Li, and AZ31-12Li alloys, respectively.