Fabrication of nanostructured cobalt ferrite coatings using suspension plasma spraying (SPS) technique

In this research, cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) coatings have been successfully deposited using a suspension plasma spraying technique. The cobalt ferrite nanoparticles, as the feed-stock, were synthesized through the co-precipitation method. The results we obtained confirm the direct formation of single-phase cobalt ferrite nanoparticles from the solution, having a mean particle size of 29 nm. Also, evaluation of the plasma-sprayed samples revealed the existence of a fully crystalline nanostructured cobalt ferrite phase in the coatings. The FESEM images further showed that the mean grain size reduces from 94 to 39 nm when the spraying distance increases from 30 to 50 mm. We also observed that the contact angle decreases from 107 to 67 degrees by increasing the stand-off distance. Furthermore, TEM results confirmed the presence of nanostructured cobalt ferrite in the as-synthesized feed-stock powder as well as in the suspension plasma sprayed coating. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.