Effect of Current Density and Bath Temperature to The Corrosion and Wear Behaviour of Tungsten Carbide - Nickel Electrodeposition Coating

The composite (ceramic-metal) coating has become a desired coating due to its higher wear and corrosion behaviour compares to metal coating only. This study focuses on the effect of the deposition parameter which is the current density and bath temperature on the corrosion and wear behaviour of the coating. As the current density and temperature will affect the movement of the electron during deposition, it is important to evaluate its effect on the coating thickness and its wear and corrosion performance. The mild steel was used as the substrate and nickel-tungsten carbide (Ni-WC) as the coating. Watts’s bath was used as an electrolyte with the addition of 25 g/l WC. 0.2 A/cm2 and 0.5 A/cm2 has been chosen as the current density while 30 °C and 50 °C as their temperature. The coating was characterised using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and x-ray diffractometer (XRD). Immersion test and weight loss test was used to evaluate the corrosion and wear behaviour respectively. The 3 g/l silicon carbide was used as abrasive materials in the wear testing. Vickers micro-hardness tester was used for hardness property evaluation. It is found that higher current density and higher bath temperature results in lower corrosion and wear rate which shows higher resistance.

Microstructural control of ZnO films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering for ultrasound transducers

<p>The aim of this study was to develop a deposition process using RF magnetron sputtering for the production of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films on glass substrates. These ZnO films were to be used as the active piezoelectric element in very high frequency ultrasound transducers (> 300 MHz). In order to achieve piezoelectric activity the films had to be oriented with the c-axis of the ZnO grains perpendicular to the substrate surface. At the same time, a moderately high, at least 1 m=hr (17 nm=min) deposition rate was required for the production of practical devices. Prior to a full investigation into the sputtering parameters, an initial evaluation of the HHV Auto500 RF magnetron sputter coater system was performed. Using the original chamber configuration it was not possible to deposit ZnO at the required deposition rates. A modification of the growth chamber to allow a reduced target-substrate distance was successful in producing ZnO films at the required deposition rates. A systematic study into the deposition parameters and their effect on the ZnO film quality and deposition rates was then performed and it was found that strong c-axis oriented films could be deposited only when depositing at rates below 15 nm=min at a low substrate temperature (< 50 C). Depositions above this rate resulted in the growth of polycrystalline films. A two-step deposition process was designed to preserve c-axis orientation at high deposition rates up to 28 nm=min. The ZnO films were found to be highly strained due to inherent stress from the sputtering process. The deposition pressure was identified as the most critical deposition parameter for stress control. It was found that deposition above a critical pressure of 1:2 x10-² mbar was essential to prevent mechanical failure of the films. Post growth annealing was investigated and determined to be a viable technique to relax stress and improve the crystalline quality of the films. Finally a four-step deposition process was proposed to facilitate the growth of c-axis oriented ZnO films at relatively high deposition rates whilst minimising film stress.</p>

Microstructural control of ZnO films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering for ultrasound transducers

<p>The aim of this study was to develop a deposition process using RF magnetron sputtering for the production of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films on glass substrates. These ZnO films were to be used as the active piezoelectric element in very high frequency ultrasound transducers (> 300 MHz). In order to achieve piezoelectric activity the films had to be oriented with the c-axis of the ZnO grains perpendicular to the substrate surface. At the same time, a moderately high, at least 1 m=hr (17 nm=min) deposition rate was required for the production of practical devices. Prior to a full investigation into the sputtering parameters, an initial evaluation of the HHV Auto500 RF magnetron sputter coater system was performed. Using the original chamber configuration it was not possible to deposit ZnO at the required deposition rates. A modification of the growth chamber to allow a reduced target-substrate distance was successful in producing ZnO films at the required deposition rates. A systematic study into the deposition parameters and their effect on the ZnO film quality and deposition rates was then performed and it was found that strong c-axis oriented films could be deposited only when depositing at rates below 15 nm=min at a low substrate temperature (< 50 C). Depositions above this rate resulted in the growth of polycrystalline films. A two-step deposition process was designed to preserve c-axis orientation at high deposition rates up to 28 nm=min. The ZnO films were found to be highly strained due to inherent stress from the sputtering process. The deposition pressure was identified as the most critical deposition parameter for stress control. It was found that deposition above a critical pressure of 1:2 x10-² mbar was essential to prevent mechanical failure of the films. Post growth annealing was investigated and determined to be a viable technique to relax stress and improve the crystalline quality of the films. Finally a four-step deposition process was proposed to facilitate the growth of c-axis oriented ZnO films at relatively high deposition rates whilst minimising film stress.</p>

Fundamental Aspects and Comprehensive Review on Physical Properties of Chemically Grown Tin-Based Binary Sulfides

The rapid research progress in tin-based binary sulfides (SnxSy = o-SnS, c-SnS, SnS2, and Sn2S3) by the solution process has opened a new path not only for photovoltaics to generate clean energy at ultra-low costs but also for photocatalytic and thermoelectric applications. Fascinated by their prosperous developments, a fundamental understanding of the SnxSy thin film growth with respect to the deposition parameters is necessary to enhance the film quality and device performance. Therefore, the present review article initially delivers all-inclusive information such as structural characteristics, optical characteristics, and electrical characteristics of SnxSy. Next, an overview of the chemical bath deposition of SnxSy thin films and the influence of each deposition parameter on the growth and physical properties of SnxSy are interestingly outlined.

Amorphous-to-nanocrystalline transition in silicon thin films by hydrogen diluted silane using PE-CVD method

: Herein, we report effect of variation of hydrogen flow rate on properties of Si:H films synthesized using PE-CVD method. Raman spectroscopy analysis show increase in crystalline volume fraction and crystallite size implying that hydrogen flow in PECVD promote the growth of crystallinity in nc-Si:H films with an expense of reduction in deposition rate. FTIR spectroscopy analysis indicates that hydrogen content in the film increases with increase in hydrogen flow rate and hydrogen is predominantly incorporated in Si-H2 and (Si-H2)n bonding configuration. The optical band gap determined using E04 method and Tauc method (ETauc) show increasing trend with increase in hydrogen flow rate and E04 is found higher than ETauc over the entire range of hydrogen flow rate studied. We also found that the defect density and Urbach energy also increases with increase in hydrogen flow rate. Photosensitivity (Photo /Dark) decreases from  103 to  1 when hydrogen flow rate increased from 30 sccm to 100 sccm and can attributed to amorphous-to-nanocrystallization transition in Si:H films. The results obtained from the present study demonstrated that hydrogen flow rate is an important deposition parameter in PE-CVD to synthesize nc-Si:H films.

Evaluation of process-structure-property relationships of carbon nanotube forests using simulation and deep learning

This work is aimed to explore process-structure-property relationships of carbon nanotube (CNT) forests. CNTs have superior mechanical, electrical and thermal properties that make them suitable for many applications. Yet, due to lack of manufacturing control, there is a huge performance gap between promising properties of individual CNTs and CNT forest properties that hinders their adoption into potential industrial applications. In this research, computational modelling, in-situ electron microscopy for CNT synthesis, and data-driven and high-throughput deep convolutional neural networks are employed to not only accelerate implementing CNTs in various applications but also to establish a framework to make validated predictive models that can be easily extended to achieve application-tailored synthesis of any materials. A time-resolved and physics-based finite-element simulation tool is modelled in MATLAB to investigate synthesis of CNT forests, specially to study the CNT-CNT interactions and generated mechanical forces and their role in ensemble structure and properties. A companion numerical model with similar construct is then employed to examine forest mechanical properties in compression. In addition, in-situ experiments are carried out inside Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) to nucleate and synthesize CNTs. Findings may primarily be used to expand the forest growth and self-assembly knowledge and to validate the assumptions of simulation package. Also, SEM images can be used as feed database to construct a deep learning model to grow CNTs by design. The chemical vapor deposition parameter space of CNT synthesis is so vast that it is not possible to investigate all conceivable combinations in terms of time and costs. Hence, simulated CNT forest morphology images are used to train machine learning and learning algorithms that are able to predict CNT synthesis conditions based on desired properties. Exceptionally high prediction accuracies of R2 > 0.94 is achieved for buckling load and stiffness, as well as accuracies of > 0.91 for the classification task. This high classification accuracy promotes discovering the CNT forest synthesis-structure relationships so that their promising performance can be adopted in real world applications. We foresee this work as a meaningful step towards creating an unsupervised simulation using machine learning techniques that can seek out the desired CNT forest synthesis parameters to achieve desired property sets for diverse applications.