IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Plasma Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session PS-TuP

Paper PS-TuP26
Plasma, Electrochemical and Thermal Oxidations of Metals and Alloys as Methods for Designing Nanostructured Oxide Films

Tuesday, October 30, 2001, 5:30 pm, Room 134/135

Session: Plasma Deposition, Modeling, and Emerging Applications Poster Session
Presenter: J.R. Parga, Instituto Tec. de Saltillo, Mexico
Authors: J.R. Parga, Instituto Tec. de Saltillo, Mexico
M.A. Hossain, Lamar University
H. McWhinney, Prairie View A&M University
D. Mencer, Penn State University
D.L. Cocke, Lamar University
Correspondent: Click to Email
Plasma, electrochemical and thermal oxidations of metals and alloys are methods of producing functional thin films. However, the fundamental physical chemistry of the film oxidation growth processes have not been sufficiently known to allow design of multicomponent oxide layers. Our reseach has recently determined the factors that control the development of oxide films on metals and alloys by thermal and electrochemical methods from which a predictive model has been developed. We have recently found that plasma methods are quite unique in producing oxide film structures that are not expected from these models. The uniqueness of the plasma method provides an alternative preparation that complements the thermal and electrochemical approaches. Our recent results using various metals and alloys such as Cu, Ni, Al, Zr, Ti and their binary and ternary alloys will be used to delineate the advantages and disadvantages of the three preparation methods and highlight the unique attributes of the plasma oxidation method. Various surface and subsurface characterization techniques have been used to structurally and chemically characterize the resulting films allowing insight into the reasons for the unique behavior of the plasma oxidation. The theoretical background and reaction models which allow structural design at the nanoscale for thermal and electrochemical oxidation will be used to examine the plasma oxidation processes and explore the the predictibility required for oxide film design at the nanoscale.