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Yefer M. Suarez
University of Missouri-Columbia
Advisors: Mark Prelas and Tushar Ghosh
Abstract
Metal-Diamond base materials (Me:Db) can be used as a support material for catalysis, and can enhance the oxidation resistance properties of diamond when combined at elevated temperatures. In this work, three samples of polycrystalline synthetic diamond films have been prepared with a thin film of platinum deposited on the surface by magnetron sputtering. Different thicknesses, which range from 0.1 nm to 3 nm, were deposited over the surface of the samples. The coated samples where annealed in a cold wall reactor in an inert environment at temperature of 500?C for 8 hours. The annealing process creates a more stable mechanical bond and a carbon-metal interface with the diamond. The samples were exposed in a sulfuric acid decomposer system developed at the University of Missouri-Columbia to test the corrosion rate of the treated samples. The samples were characterized using micro - Raman spectroscopy, UV-Vis (DRUV-VIS), I-V (QDLTS) and EDS. Surface morphology and elemental distribution was studied by backscatter scanning electron images. Preliminary results demonstrated that the samples exhibit the diamond Raman main vibration peak (1331 cm-1) associated with Sp3 bonds. I-V measurements (at room temperature) on the surface of the sample, with variable currents from nano-ampere (nA) to miliampere (mA) and voltage between ± 10 volts, reveal linear response a positive slope. The samples did not lost mass after were exposed in the sulfuric acid decomposer system (oxidation reactor) for 8 and 16 hours. Based on the preliminary results it is assumed that the process created a homogenous coating on the samples.
Yefer Suarez is a doctoral candidate at the Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute of the University of Missouri in Columbia, supervised by Drs. Mark Prelas and Tushar Ghosh. Yefer has a Masters Degree in Physics from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez and a Bachelors Degree in Physics and Mathematics from the Pedagogic and Technologic University in Tunja, Colombia.
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