Functional Ceramic Coatings Deposited by Solution Precurser Plasma Spray

溶液前驱体等离子喷涂（SPPS）是一种能够通过将对应于所需涂层成分的前驱体盐溶液注入直流电弧等离子体中来沉积几乎任何成分的涂层的工艺。从溶液中快速形成固体导致极细的微晶尺寸，通常在20-30 nm的数量级。涂层结构的范围可以从极高的孔隙率到几乎完全致密。然而，涉及许多复杂的现象，并且在理解和控制该过程以便能够可靠地沉积具有所需结构、组成和性质的存款涂层方面存在重大挑战。 拟议的研究计划将扩展和扩大我们最近在SPPS的工作。有两个主要目标。一个是进一步开发和展示该工艺的潜力，以生产用于特定应用的独特的高性能沉积物。特别感兴趣的是功能陶瓷涂层作为超级电容器和锂离子电池中的电极的电化学性能。第二个主要目标是发展一个更好地了解的现象，在这个过程中，通过耦合的实验，诊断和涂层微结构的表征与数值模拟的蒸发，分裂和液滴在等离子体中的碰撞，沉淀的产品相的液滴，加热，熔化，和粒子对基板的影响。

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.