AVS 47th International Symposium
    Thin Films Friday Sessions
       Session TF+NS-FrM

Paper TF+NS-FrM4
Plasma Spray Deposition of Nanostructured Materials

Friday, October 6, 2000, 9:20 am, Room 203

Session: Nanostructured Thin Films
Presenter: H.M. Meyer, III, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Authors: H.M. Meyer, III, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
R. White, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
T.T. Meek, University of Tennessee
Correspondent: Click to Email
Minimum film thickness achieved with any thermal-spray deposition process is limited by the size of powder feedstock materials. However, nanosized feedstock powder materials can be problematic for current plasma spray gun technology because of agglomeration and gun clogging. Some successes with nanopowder feedstock have been achieved, but mainly using special hardware and low quantities of expensive powders. We report the formation of nanostructured (i.e. nanomaterials) thin films using a unique combination of thermal spray coating techniques and liquid feedstock injection. This advanced thermal spray coating technology is a new method of synthesizing materials tailored at the nanoscale level. Injection of liquids into an arc-plasma gun offers the possibility of forming ultra-thin films at high deposition rates, a long-standing technology goal for the plasma spray industry. The formation of alumina thin films via plasma spray deposition using an aqueous precursor is presented. We compare the properties of our films with films formed by conventional thermal spray deposition using standard commercial alumina powders. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Dept. of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR2272.