Cathodic electrolysis method of depositing cerium conversion films on industrial pure aluminum

Two two-step techniques, called TS2/TS7 and TS3/TS7, respectively,have been developed to form cerium conversion films on the surface ofindustrial pure aluminum. The tested material was cathodicallyelectrolyzed in the al- kaline solution containing cerium salt, anduniform films containing cerium were obtained after the two-steptreatment. It is found that the films obtained by TS2/TS7 and TS3/TS7techniques are about 4.0 and 3.0 um in thickness, respectiv- Ely. Thematerial has better corrosion resistance in the chloride solutionafter the two-step electrolysis treatent compar- Ed with the one-steptreated and naked specimens.

Semiconductor performance of rare earth gadolinium-doped aluminum–zinc oxide thin film

Rare earth element gadolinium-doped aluminum–zinc oxide（Gd–AZO） semiconductor thin film material was deposited on both silicon and glass substrate by radio frequency（RF） sputtering at room temperature.Electrical properties and microstructure of Gd–AZO thin film were mainly modulated by altering O2 partial pressure（OPP） during the RF sputtering process.Scanning electron microscope（SEM） and X-ray diffraction（XRD） test were carried out to uncover the microstructure variation trend with the sputtering OPP,and amorphous structure which is beneficial to large mass industry manufacture was also demonstrated by the XRD pattern.Transmittance in visible light spectrum implies the potential application for Gd–AZO to be used in transparent material field.Finally,bottom gate,top contact device structure thin film transistors（TFTs） with Gd–AZO thin film as the active channel layer were fabricated to verify the semiconductor availability of Gd–AZO thin film material.Besides,the Gd–AZO TFTs exhibit preferable transfer and output characteristics.

Study of corrosion protection of the composite films on A356 aluminum alloy

Composite films were fabricated on A356 aluminum alloy by combined anodizing and rare earth deposition. The corrosion protection effect and corrosion behavior of the composite films in 3.5% NaCl solution were studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy （EIS）. SEM observation indicated that the rare earth Ce film completely sealed the porous structure of the anodic film, and the composite films composed of anodic film and Ce film were compact and integrated. According to the characteristics of EIS, the EIS plots of the compos- ite films at different immersion times were simulated using the equivalent circuits of Rsol（QceRce）（QaRa）, Rsol（QceRce）（QpRp）（QbRb） and Rsoj（QpRp）（QbRb） models, respectively. The test results showed that the Ce film at the outer layer of the composite films had good protection effect at the initial stage of the immersion corrosion. It effectively helped the anodic film at the inner layer to prevent chloride irons from penetrating the aluminum alloy matrix. After 18 days, the Ce film lost its anticorrosive property, and the anodic film took the leading role of the corrosion protection. When the corrosion time was up to 42 days, the aluminum matrix was not corroded yet. Thus, the higher protection degree of the composite films for A356 aluminum alloy was attributed to the synergism effects of anodic film and rare earth Ce film.

Self-healing effect of ceria electrodeposited thin films on stainless steel in aggressive 0.5 mol/L NaCl aqueous solution

The self-healing effect of electrochemically deposited CeO2-Ce2O3 films on stainless steel OC404（SS） in 0.5 mol/L NaCl solution was studied. It was established that the corrosion potential of the steel, after covering it with CeO2-Ce2O3 layer and thermal treatment（i.e. potential of the system CeO2-Ce2O3/SSt.t.）, was shifted sharply to a considerably more positive value, while the corrosion current was reduced noticeably. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）, energy dispersive spectroscopy（EDS） and scanning electron microscopy（SEM） analyses on the observed scratched surface area of the system CeO2-Ce2O3/SSt.t., after exposure of investigated specimens to 0.5 mol/L NaCl corrosion media, showed partial accumulation of ceria, as well as remarkable increase in the concentrations of oxides of Al, Cr and Fe, on the mechanically revealed steel surface. On the basis of the obtained results one could conclude that the secondary passive oxide/hydroxide films, formed after a definite time interval of exposure to corrosion media, acted as barriers, hindering the corrosion processes in active zones. A hypothesis was put forward about the mechanism of self-repairing oxide layers on the steel surface and their corrosion protection effect respectively.

Preparation of La MnO_3/graphene thin films and their photocatalytic activity

A novel photocatalyst of La MnO3/graphene thin films with the perovskite-type was synthesized by sol-gel process assisted with spin-coating methods on glass substrates.The prepared samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, transmission electron microscopy（TEM）, X-ray diffraction（XRD）, Brumauer-Emmett-Teller（BET） surface area analyzer, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS） and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy.Results showed that after the introduction of graphene, the perovskite structure was unchanged and the size of La MnO3 particles was about 22 nm, which uniformed growth in graphene sheet.Determination of contact angle indicated that the contact angle of glass substrate decreased and the hydrophilicity improved after treating with H2SO4 and APTES.The UV-Vis photocatalytic activity of the photocatalysts was evaluated by the degradation of diamine green B.La MnO3/graphene thin films had better photocatalytic ability than La MnO3 and Ti O2 films.The obtained k was 0.5627 and 0.3441 h–1 corresponding to La MnO3/graphene films and Ti O2 films, respectively.

Effect of film thickness on magnetic properties of Cr/SmCo/Cr films

Cr/SmCo/Cr films with different SmCo thickness were deposited on glass substrates by magnetron sputtering,followed by an annealing process at 550 °C for 20 min.Experimental results showed that the SmCo film of 30 nm exhibited two-phase behavior in the demagnetization process,the obvious kink was observed near zero.For the SmCo film of 50 nm,the kink was invisible,and a single phase like behavior was obtained in the demagnetization process.The reversal behavior became consistent in the thicker films.Moreover,the coercivity reduced and the saturated magnetization increased obviously with the increasing thickness.X-ray diffraction results indicated that the average grain size of SmCo 5 in the thicker films were almost 30 nm,but the quantity of SmCo 5 grains increased with the increasing thickness,which enhanced the intergrain exchange coupling（IEC） of the SmCo 5 hard phases.The increase of IEC improved the magnetic properties of SmCo films with increasing thickness.

Sputtering-pressure dependence of magnetic properties in amorphous Tb_(40)(FeCoV)_(60) films

The Tb40（Fe49Co49V2）60 films were fabricated by magnetron cosputtering from a multiple target arrangement at different argon pressures.The samples were investigated using X-ray diffraction,magnetic force microscope and vibrating sample magnetometer.A strong perpendicular anisotropy was obtained for the sample prepared at 0.4 Pa.The easy direction of magnetization could be turned from perpendicular to in-plane direction either at high working pressures（P Ar ＆gt;2.0 Pa） or by annealing at temperatures higher than 250 °C.An excellent magnetic softness with coercivity below 3 mT and saturating field of 20 mT in film-plane direction was obtained for the sample prepared at 0.7 Pa and then annealed at 350 °C.

Band gap and structure characterization of Tm_2O_3 films

Single crystalline Tm2O3 films were grown on Si （001） substrates by molecular beam epitaxy using metallic Tm source and atomic oxygen source. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy were employed to investigate the compositions, surface morphology and microstructure of the sample. A very flat surface with a root mean square roughness of 0.3 nm could be reached, and a sharp interface between the film and the Si substrate was achieved. The result of optical spectrum at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths showed that the band gap of the Tm2O3 film was 5.76 eV.