Thermal treatment and deposition of alumina in metallic microchannels

ABSTRACT

The objective of this work is the generation of a suitable surface, in microchannels of AISI 304 stainless steel for the manufacture of a microreactor, which ensures the anchoring of the active phase. The novelty of the work lies in achieving stabilization layer to work in different environments. The roughness generation was carried out by thermal treatment and passivation via alumina deposition by the impregnation method. The characterization was made with SEM–EDX and confocal microscope images. In a humid atmosphere, the generated surface showed high roughness with the presence of multiple filaments of iron oxide. Dilution of the suspension favoured the stability of the formed film.

KEYWORDS:

• Microreactors
• AISI 304
• alumina
• metal dusting
• thermal treatment
• impregnation
• roughness
• surface

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Universidad Nacional de San Luis, CONICET and ANPCyT. Also they thank measurements from the Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis Laboratory (LABMEM) and INCAPE for the Py-TPD analyses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Pablo Belzunce http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6756-3973