Abstract
This study demonstrates an electron beam physical vapour deposition approach as an alternative stainless steel thin films fabrication method with controlled layer thickness and uniform particles distribution capability. The films were fabricated at a range of starting electron beam power percentages of 3–10%, and thickness of 50–150 nm. Surface topography and wettability analysis of the samples were investigated to observe the changes in surface microstructure and the contact angle behaviour of 20 °C to 60 °C deionised waters, of pH 4, pH 7, and pH 9, with the as-prepared surfaces. The results indicated that films fabricated at low controlled deposition rates provided uniform particles distribution and had the closest elemental percentages to stainless steel 316L and that increasing the deposition thickness caused the surface roughness to reduce by 38%. Surface wettability behaviour, in general, showed that the surface hydrophobic nature tends to weaken with the increase in temperature of the three examined fluids.
Highlights
Stainless steels are passive alloys, which due to their chemical composition tend to form a thin oxide layer that inhibits the metal dissolution in corrosive environments [1]
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern corresponds well with the X-ray fluorescent (XRF) analysis as suggested by the sharp diffraction Bragg’s peaks shown in Figure 2a,b, where the stainless steel (SS) substrate (Figure 2a) showed peaks at 2θ = 43.6◦, 50.9◦, and 74.7◦ corresponding to the planes
Stainless steel films were fabricated via an electron beam physical vapour deposition method
Summary
Stainless steels are passive alloys, which due to their chemical composition tend to form a thin oxide layer that inhibits the metal dissolution in corrosive environments [1]. Materials 2019, 12, 571 down on surfaces via electron beam solid freeforming (EB-SFF) [12,13], ionic sputtering of a target source [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21], thermal evaporation of a source and ionic bombardment of the particles by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) approach [22], and pulsed laser evaporation technique [23,24] Some of these routes can be incompatible for industrial usage because of the lack in precision of controlling the deposited layer thickness, the thin film can be associated with contamination, and the cold spray deposited particles and/or its coated surface can suffer from intensive plastic deformation. The expected applications that can benefit from this study include, but are not limited to, medical equipment, automotive parts, and heat transfer devices
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