Ouyang, B., Huang, W., Yu, F., Du, Y., Zhang, Z., Chaurasiya, A., Liu, S., Zhu, J., Kan, E., Rawat, R. S. (2025). Controllable reduction mechanism of rust via thermal-field-modulated plasma strategy. Applied Surface Science, 698, 163116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2025.163116
Abstract:
Rust removal via glow-discharge plasma has attracted considerable attention owing to its dry environment with little contaminant, environmental-friendliness and treatment rapidity. The plasma-rust interaction process has been studied over the years, but a crucial influencing factor, the surface temperature of the iron substrate, remains inadequately controlled during plasma processing, leading to suboptimal rust removal performance and an ambiguous mechanism. Here, we innovatively modulate the rust-reducing performance on iron (Fe) surface via controlling surface thermal field during plasma processing along with the elucidation of rust reduction mechanism. Coupled with operando plasma diagnostics along with numerical simulation, it is confirmed that plasma processing with the cooling component introduction causes the insufficient surface thermal field on Fe substrate and hence results in partial Fe2O3 reduction towards porous Fe3O4 with little metallic phase formation. Comparatively, excessive thermal field results in exorbitant surface kinetic and thereby resulting in compact layer formation with inner FeO on Fe surface. Such phenomenon is ascribed to the initially achieved H2O vapor constraint within oxide to achieve FeO. We found that appropriate thermal field, where the Fe surface temperature is neither too high or too low, can remove rust effectively owing to synergistic effect of thermal field and porous structure formation. Our work is to provide a novel plasma-based pathway to effectively modulate surface oxide reduction.
License type:
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Funding Info:
This research / project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China - NA
Grant Reference no. : 12304020, 12204242
This research / project is supported by the National Science Fund for National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars - NA
Grant Reference no. : T2125004
This research / project is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province - NA
Grant Reference no. : BK20230909, BK20210323
This research / project is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities - NA
Grant Reference no. : 30923011013
This research / project is supported by the Funding of NJUST - NA
Grant Reference no. : TSXK2022D002
This research / project is supported by the Ministry of Education - AcRF (Academic Research Fund)
Grant Reference no. : RI 7/22 RSR