Fluoropolymer coatings deposited on rotating cylindrical surfaces by HW CVD: experiment and simulation

The hot wire chemical vapor deposition method has been adapted to deposit fluoropolymer coatings on small-radius rotating surfaces. The influence of the rotational frequency of a cylindrical sample during the deposition process on the formation of a layer of fluoropolymer coating was studied. It was found that the rotational frequency of the cylindrical sample significantly changed the morphology of the resulting coating. It was shown that with an increase in the sample’s rotational frequency from 1 to 100 rpm, the deposition rate decreased and the coating structure degraded. To establish the reasons for this effect, a numerical study of the flow around a rotating cylindrical sample was carried out for a range of low gas velocities and densities in the reactor. The simulations are based on solving the Navier–Stokes equation with no slip and velocity slip boundary conditions for a rotating surface. It was found that the main reason for the decrease in the deposition rate was associated with the effect of the formation of a closed circulation flow region above the sample’s surface during rotation. The dependence of the characteristic size of this region on the rotational frequency of the cylinder sample was close to linear. The effects of surface boundary conditions were also analyzed.