Mechanical Properties and Phase-Transition of Laser-Deposited Sol-Gel Titania Coatings

Abstract

 Titanium oxide coatings were fabricated via a combaine laser/sol-gel technique. The deposition of sol-gel titania coatings on AISI316 substrates is conducted using fibre laser irradiation (λ=1064 nm) in continuous wave mode under wet condition with different laser specific energies. ATR-FTIR, XRD, SEM and EDS were used to investigate the phase composition, crystalline structure, surface morphology of the laser-deposited titania coatings, whilst the mechanical properties were measured using nano-indentation. The results illustrate that the laser irradiation led to the deposition of titanium oxide coatings in both crystalline phases, anatase and rutile at various processing conditions. The optimal theoretical ratio of 1:2 in TiO2 is obtained for the deposited titania coatings under the influence of laser energy. Nano-indentation measurements confirm that the mechanical properties of laser-deposited titania coatings are significantly improved.