Oxide films by combustion pyrolysis of solution precursors

A combustion pyrolysis technique has been developed to deposit oxide films onto metal and ceramic substrates. A precursor solution is atomised and injected into an oxy-acetylene flame where thermal decomposition takes place to directly yield a film on a substrate. This technique is used to deposit different kinds of films including Al2O3, ZnO, metastable solid solutions of ZnO–MgO and ZrO2–Y2O3. The conditions that were necessary to obtain uniform and adherent films were established. Films were characterised by X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy and micro-hardness.