Effect of low current density and low frequency on oxidation resistant and coating activity of coated FeCrAl substrate by γ-Al2O3 powder

High oxidation resistant is the needed material properties for material that operates in high temperature such as catalytic converter material. FeCrAl alloy acts as metallic material and is used as substrate material that is coated by ceramic material i.e. γ-Al2O3. The main purpose of this research is to increase oxidation resistant of metallic material as it will help improve the life time of metallic catalytic converter. Ultrasonic technique (UB) and Nickel electroplating technique (EL) were used to achieve the objective. UB was carried out using various time of 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 h, in low frequency of 35 kHz and ethanol as the electrolyte. Meanwhile, EL was conducted using various times of 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 minutes, DC power supply was 1.28A and sulphamate type as the solution. The characterization and analysis were carried out using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and box furnace at various temperature of 1000, 1100 and 1200 °C. SEM analysis shows the surface morphology of treated and untreated samples. Untreated samples shows finer surface structure as compared to UB and EL samples. It was caused by γ-Al2O3 which was embedded during UB and EL process on the surface of FeCrAl substrate to develop protective oxide layer. The layer was used to protect the substrate from extreme environment condition and temperature operation. Oxidation resistant analysis shows that treated samples had lower mass change as compared to untreated samples. Lowest mass change of treated samples were located at UB 1.5 h and EL at 30 minute with 0.00475 g and 0.00243 g for temperature of 1000 °C, 0.00495 g and 000284 g for temperature of 1100 °C and 0.00519 g and 0.00304 g for temperature 1200 °C, Based on the overall results, it can be concluded that EL 30 minute samples was the appropriate parameter to coat FeCrAl by γ-Al2O3 to develop metallic catalytic converter that is high oxidation resistant in high temperature operation.