Effect of surface deposited rare earth oxide gel characteristics on cyclic oxidation behavior of Fe20-Cr alloys

Rare earths have been used to increase high temperature oxidation resistance of many chromium dioxide and alumina forming alloys. These rare earths can be added as elements (or as oxide dispersions) to the alloys or applied as an oxide coating to the alloy surface. The sol-gel technique is considered to be very efficient to apply fine oxide particle coatings. Oxide gel coatings of various rare earths such as lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, gadolinium, dysprosium, yttrium, erbium and ytterbium have been applied to an iron-chromium alloy to determine their influence on the cyclic oxidation behavior (RT-900 °C) of the alloy. The morphology and coverage of the rare earth oxide gels varied with the type of rare earth. The cyclic oxidation resistance of the alloy increased with increase in time at temperature required to reach a specific chromium dioxide layer thickness and this in turn was influenced by the rare earth ion radius and characteristics of the rare earth oxide coating such as morphology, stability, coverage, resistance to thermal stresses and consequently adhesion