Surface preparation chemical etching

To protect the aluminum joint from the effects of the environment, especially water and corrosion, an artificially thickened oxide layer is generally formed on the surface. Historically, chemical etching as a surface preparation has provided the surest way of obtaining durable adhesive bonds with aluminum. 

For characterizafion of failure mechanism by metallography, samples are prepared by cross-sectioning, mounting in polymer, polishing to a smooth cut surface, and chemical etching to reveal nucrostructures. Prior to cross-sectioning. 

Surface preparation of the core foil was originally simple acid etching. As the importance of durable surface treatments became known, a more stable chemical conversion coating with an organic primer-like coating became standard. Still, water ingression into honeycomb structure continued to cause the occasional... 

The silica microspheres provide some diversity but not enough for many complex discrimination tasks. To introduce more sensor variety, hollow polymeric microspheres have been fabricated8. The preparation of these hollow microspheres involves coating silica microspheres by living radical polymerization, using the surface as the initiation site. Once the polymer layer forms on the silica microbead surface, the silica core is removed by chemical etching. These hollow spheres can be derivatized with the dye of interest. The main advantage of these polymer microspheres is the variety of monomers that can be employed in their fabrication to produce sensors with many different surface functionalities and polymer compositions. 

After the cleaning process, other techniques are used to prepare the surface of the substrate for coating. Some techniques include drying, surface etching, and chemical surface preparation. Examples of chemical surface preparation include the formation of an oxide layer or the monolayer assembly of an adhesion promoter on the surface. These processes modify the surface of the substrates so as to facilitate the subsequent deposition process. In surface preparation, frequently, the hydrophilic/hydrophobic character of the surface is controlled to match the coating solution properties. For example, Van Driessche et al.19 reported on improving the wettability of Ni-4at%W tapes... 

For a compound semiconductor to be useful as a substrate in studies of electrodeposition, it is desirable that clean, unreconstructed, stoichiometric surfaces be formed in solution prior to electrodeposition. For CdTe, the logical starting point is the standard wet chemical etch used in industry, a 1-5% Brj methanol solution. A CdTe(lll) crystal prepared in this way was transferred directly into the UHV-EC instrument (Fig. 39) and examined [391]. Figure 66B is an Auger spectrum of the CdTe surface after a 3-minute etch in a 1% Br2 methanol solution. Transitions for Cd and Te are clearly visible at 380 and 480 eV, respectively, as well as a small feature due to Br at 100 eV. No FEED pattern was visible, however. As described previously, a layer of solution is generally withdrawn with the crystal as it is dragged (emersed) from solution (the emersion layer). After all the solvent has evaporated, the surface is left with a coating composed of the... 

Customarily, semiconductor surfaces are chemically or physically prepared to optimize their chemical and/or electro-optical properties. For chemical sensing applications, a freshly etched surface often provides greater chemical sensitivity. A Br2/MeOH etch of n-CdSe, for example, has typically yielded larger luminescence responses to analytes than have polished samples. Additionally, transducing films have been used to modify semiconductor surfaces to enhance the selectivity of CdSe for particular analytes [2]. 

The preparation or etching of compound semiconductors is more complex due to the potential of altering the surface stoichiometry. Shiota et al. (36) used AES to show that the final As/Ga at the surface of GaAs was very dependent on the chemical activity of wet chemical etchants. Bertrand was able to follow the changes in the chemical bonding of Ga and As on p-type GaAs etched in HC1 or Br in methanol and relate this to Schottky barrier heights of similarly prepared surfaces with Pb contacts (37). 

The outdoor durability of epoxy bonded joints is very dependent on the type of epoxy adhesive, specific formulation, nature of the surface preparation, and specific environmental conditions encountered in service. The data shown in Fig. 15.19, for a two-part room temperature cured polyamide epoxy adhesive with a variety of fillers, illustrates the differences in performance that can occur due to formulation changes. Excellent outdoor durability is provided on aluminum adherends when chromic-sulfuric acid etch or other chemical pretreatments are used. 

The general sequence of surface preparation for ferrous surfaces such as iron, steel, and stainless steel consists of the following methods degreasing, acid etch or alkaline clean, rinse, dry, chemical surface treatment, and priming. The chemical surface treatment step is not considered a standard procedure, but it is sometimes used when optimum quality joints are required. It consists of the formation of a corrosion-preventing film of controlled chemical composition and thickness. These films are a complex mixture of phosphates, fluorides, chromates, sulfates, nitrates, etc. The composition of the film may be the important factor that controls the strength of the bonded joint. 

Titanium is widely used in aerospace applications that require high strength-to-weight ratios at elevated temperatures. As a result, a number of different prebonding surface preparation processes have been developed for titanium. These generally follow the same sequence as for steel and other major industrial metal substrates degrease, acid-etch or alkaline-clean, rinse and dry, chemical surface treatment, rinse and dry, and finally prime or bond. Mechanical abrasion is generally not recommended for titanium surfaces. 

Because of the solvent and chemical resistance of acetal copolymer, special etching treatments have been developed for surface preparation prior to adhesive bonding. A chromic acid etch and a hydrochloric acid etch have been suggested. Acetal parts that have been formed by heat treatment or machining should be stress-relieved before etching. 

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