Demonstration of the etching cobalt oxide grown on the stainless steel as a base metal surface using F2/He dielectric barrier discharge plasma in atmospheric pressure

TL;DR

This study demonstrates an effective atmospheric-pressure plasma etching technique using F2/He dielectric barrier discharge to remove cobalt oxide from stainless steel surfaces, with optimized conditions achieving high etching rates.

Contribution

It introduces a novel plasma etching process for cobalt oxide on stainless steel at atmospheric pressure, with detailed optimal parameters and analysis of surface removal efficiency.

Findings

Cobalt oxide becomes powder after plasma treatment and is easily separated.

Optimal plasma conditions: 4.5 kV, 25 kHz, etching rate 10.875 μmol/min.

Effective removal of cobalt surface contamination demonstrated.

Abstract

Metal surface cleaning or etching techniques using reactive plasma are emerging as one of the dry processing techniques for surface contaminants with high bond energy, especially for cleaning and decontamination of nuclear components and equipment. In this study, the plasma reaction due to the discharge of a dielectric barrier of a mixture of 95% helium and 5% fluorine with cobalt oxide film grown on the surface of stainless steel 304 was studied experimentally. Experimental results show that cobalt oxide becomes a powder after plasma irradiation and is easily separated from the surface of the base metal. The optimal plasma generating conditions of the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) used in this experimental study were obtained at atmospheric pressure, voltage 4.5 kV, and frequency 25 kHz with a etching rate of 10.875 {\mu}mol/min. The samples were analyzed before and after plasma irradiation, using Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX) and the purification rate was performed using a sequential weighting of the samples with scales 10^(-4) grams accurately obtained. The results show the ability of this method to effectively remove the surface contamination of cobalt from the surface of stainless steel 304.