Abstract
As a candidate material against plasma etching, yttrium oxide has been coated onto etching chamber by plasma spray technique. However, the plasma spray technique introduces undesirable coating properties such as porous structure and deleterious thermal effects. To reduce the disadvantage of thermal impact, cold spray was used as an alternative technology to deposit thick and dense yttrium oxide coatings. Primary nanoscale Y2O3 were used as the original powder, for the ceramic materials are intrinsic brittle and are difficult to be deposited by cold spray. The nano-powder were first agglomerated by hydrothermal treatment with addition of inorganic salt to acquire suitable powder for cold spray, and then deposited on aluminum alloy 6061 substrates by cold spray process with compressed air as propellant gas. About 200μm yttrium oxide coatings were formed on the substrate alloy. Different processing parameters were employed to optimize microstructure and properties of the coating.
