There have been recent efforts to expand the thermal spraying capabilities for novel corrosion resistant coatings for metal bipolar plates were produced by thermal spraying for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell applications. Recently, substrate heated by plasma gun or by external laser beam has been proposed to enhance the mechanical and thermal properties of the coatings. Studies were found that with sufficient substrate heating, substrate melting may happen. When droplets solidified on a thin liquid layer on the top of the substrate, conditions will be similar to crystal growth and Epitaxy film growth will be possible. It is therefore possible that using substrate melting as tool to promote epi-layer growth using plasma spraying. Difficulty is how to control the substrate temperature to cause substrate melting during droplet solidification. In this study we will propose a new idea for better temperature control on the substrate. The capability of epitaxy growth using thermal spraying will be investigated. Molybdenum droplets impact on an Aluminum substrate will be studied. A splat formation model including undercooling, nucleation, and non-equilibrium solidification will be used to study the possibility of the substrate melting and grain size distribution.

Molybdenum powder has been plasma sprayed on stainless steel, brass and aluminum substrates. The substrate melting phenomenon is observed and investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and scanning white light interferometery (SWLI). It is found that the flower-shape splat morphology is typical for molybdenum on all three substrate materials when the substrate is at room temperature. Notable substrate melting is manifested through the energy dispersion analysis of X-ray (EDAX) map and Robinson back-scattered image of cross-sections of splats. It has been shown that the substrate material plays an important role in substrate melting phenomenon. The lift angle of the petals of splats and the maximum crater depth have been characterized and compared. Both of these increase in the sequence, from stainless steel, brass to aluminum. A ‘volume of fluid’ (VOF) based model coupled with rapid solidification has been used to simulate splat deformation, solidification, substrate melting and resolidification. The numerical & analytical results agree quite well with the experimental data. A substrate melting mechanism is proposed based on the time scales of the droplet solidification and substrate melting to explain the formation of flower like splat morphologies.