Effect of temperature on deposition of LaPO₄ coatings produced by ultrasonic-based coating process on steel substrates

High-adhesion LaPO₄ coatings were fabricated on steel substrates at temperatures of 150-400 °C after a 10 min treatment using an ultrasonic-based coating process. The principle underlying this process is the collision of ultrasonically accelerated hard balls with the substrate surface that is covered by loosely adhered LaPO₄ particles. The repeated substrate-to-ball collisions flatten the precoated LaPO₄ particles, bond them together and cold weld them to the substrate. The coating thickness, roughness and structure were found to depend on the substrate temperature. The LaPO₄ coatings produced at temperatures ranging from 150 to 250 °C exhibited a granular and porous structure. The treatment at temperatures higher than 300 °C enabled the production of rather dense coatings.