1 s2.0 S0042207X1630714X Main
1 s2.0 S0042207X1630714X Main
1 s2.0 S0042207X1630714X Main
Vacuum
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a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: In order to develop a low cost oxide film deposition process with short duration time, a 1 kW class
Received 15 April 2016 Atmospheric thermal plasma spray (APS)/Atmospheric solution precursor plasma spray (ASPPS) dual
Received in revised form mode thermal spray equipment was manufactured and film depositions of alumina (Al2O3) and titania
25 September 2016
(TiO2) by APS and titania film deposition by ASPPS were carried out. Consequently, though intensive
Accepted 14 October 2016
Available online 17 October 2016
fluctuation with intensive abrasion of electrodes occurred during plasma jet generation in case of N2
working gas, the plasma jet was stabilized and the abrasion was dramatically diminished by slight
addition of Ar to N2 working gas. Since the suction type feedstock feeder could be confirmed to be
Keywords:
Aluminum oxide
available not only for powder feedstock but also solution precursor feed stock. In the case of APS, lamellar
Titanium oxide structure alumina and titania films could be deposited. However, in the case of titania films deposited by
Atmospheric thermal plasma spray (APS) APS, a phase transformation from anatase to rutile occurred partially during film deposition. Also in the
Atmospheric solution precursor plasma case of ASPPS, titania films including rutile and anatase were deposited. From these results, the devel-
spray (ASPPS) oped equipment was proved to be available as an APS/ASPPS dual mode thermal spray equipment and
Photo-catalyst this technique was found to have high potential for a low-cost oxide film deposition process.
Surface modification © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
1. Introduction (CVD) [7], physical vapor deposition (PVD) [8] and sol-gel method
[9] have been widely and dominantly used. However, since CVD and
Oxide films have been used for various applications including PVD have some disadvantages such as low deposition time, high
corrosion-resistive, abrasion-resistive and thermal barrier coatings initial cost due to requirement of vacuum equipment, limitation of
of bridges [1], semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and en- the sample size due to dimension of the vacuum chamber, a low
gines [2e4]. In addition they start to be utilized as functional film cost film deposition process with short duration time is demanded.
such as a photo-voltaic device, solid electrolyte, and gas sensor. As for the sol-gel method, although film deposition can be con-
Especially, because of its excellent chemical stability, alumina ducted by use of simple equipment, this process also has some
(Al2O3) film has been used in practice. Recently, because of its disadvantages such as low deposition rate, limitation of the sample
excellent photo-catalytic properties [5], titania (TiO2) film is suc- size due to dimension of the water bath for hydrolysis, difficulty of
cessfully applied as a antimicrobial coating, or, photo-voltaic device thick film deposition due to factors such as the internal stress
for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) [6]. generated by volume variation of the film during crystallization. On
As the oxide film deposition process, chemical vapor deposition the other hand, in atmospheric thermal plasma spray (APS), since
the high rate (over several hundred microns/min.) film deposition
can be conducted by simple equipment in open air without any
chambers, low cost film deposition with short duration time can be
* Corresponding author. Division of Renewable Energy and Environment,
carried out. Also, solution precursor plasma spray (SPPS) [10e14],
Ashikaga Institute of Technology, 268-1 Omae, Ashikaga, Tochigi 326-8558, Japan.
E-mail address: [email protected] (Y. Ando). which is one of the plasma spray processes, can create a dense film
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vacuum.2016.10.019
0042-207X/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
204 Y. Ando et al. / Vacuum 136 (2017) 203e208
Table 4
State of N2 plasma jets and Ar added N2 plasma jets.
N2 D D D X X
Ar added N2 B B B B X
In this study, the states of the plasma jets under the conditions
of N2 working gas and Ar added N2 working gas were investigated.
Table 4 shows the states of the plasma jets. In case of N2 working
gas, although the plasma jet could not be generated continuously
on the conditions of over 2.5 l/min. in a N2 flow rate, plasma jets
could be generated continuously for conditions of under 2.5 l/min.
However, even under 2 l/min., intensive fluctuation with intensive
abrasion of electrodes occurred. On the other hand, for Ar (flow
rate: 0.5 l/min.) and added N2 working gas, although the plasma jet
could not be generated continuously in the conditions of over 3 l/
min., plasma jets could be generated without electrodes abrasion
and intensive fluctuation of the plasma jets using under 2.5 l/min.
Fig. 4. Appearance and cross-sectional optical micrograph of the alumina film coated
sample on the condition of QAr ¼ 0.5 l/min., QN2 ¼ 0.6 l/min. and d ¼ 70 mm (QAr: Ar
flow rate, QN2: N2 flow rate, d: deposition distance). a) Appearance b) Cross-section.
Fig. 6. Appearance and cross-sectional optical micrograph of the titania film coated
sample on the condition of QAr ¼ 0.5 l/min., QN2 ¼ 0.6 l/min. and d ¼ 100 mm (QAr: Ar
flow rate, QN2: N2 flow rate, d: deposition distance). a) Appearance b) Cross-section.
Fig. 8. Appearances of the Ar and Ar/N2 plasma jets (QAr: Ar flow rate, QN2: N2 flow rate). a) Ar plasma jet b) Ar/N2 plasma jet.
208 Y. Ando et al. / Vacuum 136 (2017) 203e208
References