Protective properties of Al2O3 + TiO2 coating produced by the electrostatic spray deposition method

Mechanical resistance of Al2O3 + TiO2 nanocomposite ceramic coating deposited by electrostatic spray deposition method onto X10CrAlSi18 steel to thermal and slurry tests was investigated. The coating was produced from colloidal suspension of TiO2 nanoparticles dispersed in 3 wt% solution of Al2(NO3)3, as Al2O3 precursor, in ethanol. TiO2 nanoparticles of two sizes, 15 nm and 32 nm, were used in the experiments. After deposition, coatings were annealed at various temperatures, 300, 1000 and 1200 °C, and next exposed to cyclic thermal and slurry tests. Regardless of annealing temperature and the size of TiO2 nanoparticles, the outer layer of all coatings was porous. The first five thermal cycles caused a rapid increase of aluminum content of the surface layer to 30-37 wt%, but further increase in the number of thermal cycles did not affect the aluminum content. The oxidation rate of coating-substrate system was lower during the thermal tests than during annealing. The oxidation rate was also lower for smaller TiO2 particles (15 nm) forming the coating than for the larger ones (32 nm). The protective properties of Al2O3 + TiO2 coating against intense oxidation of substrate were lost at 1200 °C. Slurry tests showed that coatings annealed at 1000 °C had the best slurry resistance, but thermal tests had weakened this slurry resistance, mainly due to decreasing adhesion of the coating.