The behavior of titanium, stainless steel, and copper-nickel alloys as plasma torch cathodes

Abstract

Cathode erosion continues to be a problem hindering the widespread application of plasma technology. In this work, cathode erosion was studied on titanium, stainless steel 314, copper-nickel 10% and 30%, and copper 122 for magnetically rotated arcs operating in argon, nitrogen, and argon/hydrogen mixtures at a constant magnetic flux density of 0.1 T Titanium and stainless steel gave very low erosion rates in argon (0.2 and 0.3, μg/C respectively). Cupronickels were shown to be suitable for nitrogen and hydrogen plasmas. The slope of hydrogen solubility versus temperature in the cathode material was found to be important in determining hydrogen plasma erosion characteristics. When the plasma gas has a high solubility in the cathode material, or can react with the cathode, a negative erosion rate may result. When gas solubility in the cathode is low, oxide stability and mode of electron emission may govern the erosion rate. A high gas solubility in the cathode material, as with hydrogen, can result in mechanical erosion due to micro-explosions near the cathode surface.