Nano-Fabrication by Cathodic Plasma Electrolysis

Cathodic plasma electrolytic (CPE) techniques are new groups of coating processes, which can be used for fabrication of nanostructured layers on surface of a wide range of metallic substrates. The most exciting visible feature of these atmospheric-based plasma techniques is continuous sparking on processed surface inside an electrolyte. Unlike the anodic part of plasma electrolysis (usually known as plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) or micro arc oxidation (MAO)), which is commonly used for oxidation of light metals/alloys such as aluminum, titanium and magnesium, CPE techniques can clean and coat different metals and alloys such as steel, copper, and light metals/alloys with formation of wide range of nanostructures including complex carbides, carbonitrides, intermetallics, and even oxides. It has been observed that the properties of obtained layers depend on the characteristics of achieved nanostructures such as average size, distribution and average coordination number of nanocrystallites. Furthermore, the properties of the processed surface can be tailored by tailoring the nanostructure characteristics. There is limited literature available on the mechanism of CPE and its connection to the morphology of nanostructured layers. This article addresses the two important aspects of CPE, namely characterization of nanostructured layers and mechanism of cathodic plasma electrolysis, which are reviewed in accordance to the morphology of fabricated nanostructures.