Twospoons - 4-7-2024 at 20:01
I have this idea I want to try that requires heating TiO2 coated Ti mesh to 800C or so under vacuum.
I have a bell jar and vacuum pump, just need to create a heater.
I could just run a large current through the mesh, but I'd need to add high temperature high current connections, and generate a very large, low
voltage current ( the latter is not that difficult for an EE like me).
The other option is an IR heater - I'm leaning towards making a panel of linear halogen lamps with a reflector behind them.
Anyone have experience with this sort of thing - either using or building a substrate heater for a vacuum chamber?
Rainwater - 5-7-2024 at 03:25
Ir heat (radiation transfer) is slow and inefficient. Not that it will not work, but is hard to do with manageable losses.
800c is a difficult target with this method.
I would suggest inductive heating. Their cheap to make(100s of videos online) and can be quite effective but difficult to regulate, which may/maynot
be a problem.
It also mostly works with metal, and not compounds. So this may be another issue.
The primary coil can be build to vacuum spec, sized and shapped as needed, and cooled seperately to prevent unwanted outgassing. They are also very
cheap, diy less than $100, professional 500 and up depending of your requirements. (50g charge with a diameter less than 6in)
The problem will be preventing the formation of plasma or shielding plasma which can caused unwanted material transfer.
Morgan - 5-7-2024 at 05:29
Would a simple flame and evacuated long relatively inexpensive narrow quartz tube work if you don't need a large diameter? Fused quartz will handle
850C long term and short-term 1100C.
Ubya - 5-7-2024 at 11:38
you could recycle physical vapor deposition hardware for your project.
they aren't super cheap, but you can buy high current feedthoughs, and molybdenum boats/coils to evaporate whatever you want.
Twospoons - 5-7-2024 at 17:39
The end goal is to produce a Ti electrode with a surface coating of Ti4O7, ideally 100mm square or larger. So that rules out
narrow tubes.
Other methods I've seen in the literature involve reducing TiO2 in a hydrogen or argon atmosphere in a furnace, using H2, C or
Ti powder as a reductant. But I don't have a furnace.
Plasma spraying is another coating method, but I don't have a plasma spray gun, and I'd still have to make or buy the Ti4O7
powder.
For some reason ready made electrodes are stupidly expensive (300USD on ebay) or I'd just buy some.
There are some ceramic IR heaters (for stove hobs) on Aliexpress that might do the job, assuming they survive vacuum.
wg48temp9 - 7-7-2024 at 10:22
You can construct a high current feed through from the output stub of a domestic microwave oven. Thats the cylindrical item projecting from the top of
the magnetron. The pink part is the ceramic insulator. The thimble above the pink ceramic when removed (it's usually a push on fit) reveals a short
copper tube (about 6mm diameter) crimped closed. The crimp can be cut off or prised open to allow a copper rode or tube to pass through and soldered
to the copper tube. The stub must be cut at its base to remove it from the rest of the magnetron.
The lower pink item has two molybdenum 1mm wires sealed through it. That can be used to make a two wire medium current feed through.
