Preparation and infrared properties of Ni3Al–Cr3C2 composite films deposited by electrohydrodynamic atomization technology

The purpose of this work is to provide a clean and efficient preparation process for Ni3Al–Cr3C2 composite films. In this work, two kinds of slurries were prepared to deposit Ni3Al–Cr3C2 composite films on a 316L stainless steel substrate by electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) technology. The slurry used for deposition was prepared with magnetic stirring and ball milling, respectively. The influence of the atomization parameters (atomization distance, operating voltage, and flow rates) on the characteristics of deposited films was investigated. Homogenous and compact films, with a structure of ∼10 layers, were fabricated under the optimized deposition parameters. The composition and micro-morphology of the composite films were examined. The spectral reflectivity of the Ni3Al–Cr3C2 composite films was characterized by the Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to study the infrared properties of the composite films. The results showed that because the slurries used to deposit the composite films were prepared by various methods, the infrared reflectivity and emissivity of the two composite films were different in the middle and far-infrared region. However, in the whole middle and far-infrared spectrum, the emissivity of the two films was significantly low. Therefore, the Ni3Al–Cr3C2 composite films deposited by EHDA are expected to be used in mid-high temperature solar films.