Graphite oxide synthetized by pulsed laser ablation technique used as an antifouling coating to inhibit CaCO3 scale on stainless steel surfaces

Abstract

This work presents a study on the influence of carbon thin films deposited on stainless steel substrates for calcium carbonate (CaCO3) scaling tests. Three stainless steel samples were prepared from a metallographic polishing process. Subsequently, two of the pieces were coated with carbon thin films, and the other piece was used as a reference (without coating). One piece was coated only with carbon, and the other was coated first with nickel and then with carbon. Both coatings were synthetized by pulsed laser ablation (PLD) using an Nd:YAG pulsed laser with a wavelength of 266 nm, a pulse energy of 70 mJ, and a repetition rate of 10 Hz. The target was ablated for 10 min to deposit each thin film on the steel surface. The samples were characterized by different techniques to study morphological properties such as roughness, wettability, and surface energy. In addition, x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and water contact angle were used to determine the type of structure deposited by PLD. Characterization results allowed us to identify the coating structure as a thin film of partially oxidized graphite. Finally, the coated pieces were subjected to the CaCO3 scaling process and the results showed that the coatings improved the inhibition of CaCO3 with a reduction of more than 80% of the embedded mass compared to the uncoated sample.