• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.517-518
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• 2009

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.552-561
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• 2011

This study attempted to manufacture a Cu-15 at.%Ga coating layer via the cold spray process and investigated the effect of heat treatment environment on the properties of cold sprayed coating material. Three kinds of heat treatment environments, $5%H_2$+argon, pure argon, and vacuum were used in this study. Annealing treatments were conducted at $200{\sim}800^{\circ}C$/1 hr. With the cold sprayed coating layer, pure ${\alpha}$-Cu and small amounts of $Ga_2O_3$ were detected in the XRD, EDS, EPMA analyses. Porosity significantly decreased and hardness also decreased with increasing annealing temperature. The inhomogeneous dendritic microstructure of cold sprayed coating material changed to the homogeneous and dense one (microstructural evolution) with annealing heat treatment. Oxides near the interface of particles could be reduced by heat treatment especially in vacuum and argon environments. Vacuum environment during heat treatment was suggested to be most effective one to improve the densification and purification properties of cold sprayed Cu-15 at.%Ga coating material.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.618-622
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• 2010

Cost-effective purification methods of silicon were carried out in order to replace the conventional Siemens method for solar grade silicon. Firstly, acid leaching which is a hydrometallurgical process was preceded with grinded silicon powders of metallurgical grade (~99% purity) to remove metallic impurities. Then, plasma treatments were performed with the leached silicon powders of 99.94% purity by argon plasma at 30 kW power under atmospheric pressure. Plasma treatment was specifically efficient for removing Zr, Y, and P but not for Al and B. Another purification step by EB treatment was also studied for the 99.92% silicon lump which resulted in the fast removal of boron and aluminum. That means the two methods are effective alternative tools for removing the doping elements like boron and phosphor.