Functional Ceramic Coatings Deposited by Solution Precurser Plasma Spray

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Solution precursor plasma spraying (SPPS) is a process capable of depositing coatings of almost anycomposition by injecting solutions of precursor salts corresponding to the desired coating composition into a DC-arc plasma. The rapid formation of the solid from the solution results in extremely fine crystallite sizes, typically on the order of 20-30 nm. Coating structures can range from extremely high porosities to nearly completely dense. However, a number of complex phenomena are involved and significant challenges exist in understanding and controlling the process in order to be able to reliably deposit coatings of the desired structure, composition, and properties. The proposed research programme will extend and expand our recent work in SPPS. There are two major objectives. One is to further develop and demonstrate the potential of this process to produce unique, high performance deposits of for specific applications. Of particular interest is the electrochemical performance of functional ceramic coatings as electrodes in ultra-capacitors and Li-ion batteries. The second major objective is to develop a better understanding of the phenomena involved in the process through coupling of experiments, diagnostics, and characterization of coating microstructures with numerical modelling of the evaporation, break-up and collision of droplets in the plasma, the precipitation of product phases in the droplets, the heating, melting, and impact of the particles on the substrate.