Super-strong coating created for aircraft engines

EKATERINBURG, May 28. /TASS/. Scientists from the Ural Federal University (UrFU) and the Institute of Electrophysics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have created an ultra-strong coating that can protect aircraft engine components from oxidation at extreme temperatures. The new technology will reduce the cost of manufacturing parts and increase the service life of engines for civil aircraft and helicopters, the UrFU Department of Scientific Communications reported.

"Scientists from the Ural Federal University and the Institute of Electrophysics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have synthesized an innovative SiAlCN (silicon-aluminum-carbon-nitrogen) coating using an original method, which is capable of protecting aircraft engine components from oxidation at extreme temperatures. The development simultaneously combines low synthesis temperatures (up to 400 degrees Celsius), a high deposition rate and significant hardness. All this will reduce the cost of manufacturing parts and increase the service life of engines for civil aircraft and helicopters. The study was carried out with the support of the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 20-79-10059) and published in the Ceramics journal," they said there.

The coating was obtained using a hybrid technology that combines aluminum evaporation and plasma activation of an organosilicon precursor. Over the course of two years, scientists conducted more than ten series of tests, achieving the formation of a dense nanocomposite coating structure with the desired chemical composition, which ensured the high mechanical properties of the new composite. Experiments have shown that the new material has a hardness of up to 31 GPa (which is comparable to diamond-like coatings) and a dense structure without defects - traditional methods for creating such protective films on the surface of turbine elements require temperatures above 1 thousand degrees and often lead to the formation of various defects.

"We can change various synthesis conditions in a wide range, and the process itself occurs at relatively low temperatures (100, 200, 400 degrees Celsius). This allows us to apply protective coatings not only to steel and titanium products, but also to low-melting materials such as polycarbonate. We also have no visible limitations on scaling the installation for industrial production, here everything will depend directly on the task," said Andrey Menshakov, senior researcher at the Ural Federal University's Laboratory of Photovoltaic Materials and the Institute of Electrophysics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Protective coatings are one of the key elements of modern aircraft engines operating at temperatures up to 1.4 thousand degrees Celsius. Scientists plan to test the coating on real components of gas turbines and jet engines, as well as adapt the technology for other industries. For example, during the study, a second type of coating was created, which has abnormally high piezoresistive properties. This will allow scientists to create new types of thin-film sensors with a thickness of several tens of microns and more sensitive, which is an order of magnitude less than the options currently used.