Pulsed laser deposition of alumina coating for corrosion protection against liquid uranium

Alumina coatings find wide applications as tribological coatings and as corrosion protective coatings for structural materials against chemical attack. We have investigated alumina coatings deposited on Stainless Steel (SS) substrates via pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. Characterization tests performed on these coatings including their compatibility with liquid uranium suggests alumina to be a potential candidate as a coating material for handling and containment of liquid uranium. We present here results of our detailed parametric study including dependence of average mass removal rate on laser fluence and ablation geometry and average deposition efficiency during PLD. These measurements provide vital inputs facilitating proper choice of process parameters for PLD runs. Deposited coatings have been characterized in terms of their microstructure, surface profile, adhesion to substrate, crystalline phase and corrosion resistance against liquid uranium. Our PLD based alumina coatings have shown a high degree of compaction and excellent corrosion resistance to molten uranium even upto a temperature of 1165 °C.