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A Study on the NF3 Plasma Etching Reaction with Cobalt Oxide Grown on Inconel Base Metal Surface

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Abstract

In this study, the reaction of NF3 gas plasma with cobalt oxide (Co3O4) film grown on the Inconel base metal surface was investigated. Experimental results showed the plasma etching rate as high as 3.36 μm/min at 350 °C under 220 W of plasma power with negative 300 DC bias voltage. AES and XPS analyses revealed that reaction product is CoF2, demonstrating that the plasma processing is a fluorination reaction. Based on the linear kinetics law, the activation energy of the etching reaction was derived to be 66.93 kJ/mol. This study demonstrates that the plasma decontamination technique can be applied to efficiently and effectively remove radioactive surface contaminants such as 60Co hiding in the oxide film on the surfaces of the metallic waste generated during decommissioning of old nuclear power plants.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIP: Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning) (No. NRF-2017M2B2B1072888) and by the Human Resources Program in Energy Technology of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP), granted financial resources from the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, Republic of Korea (No. 20184030201970).

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  1. Department of Nuclear Engineering, Hanyang University, 222, Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, 04763, Republic of Korea

    Jaeyong Lee, Kyungmin Kim & Yong-Soo Kim

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  1. Jaeyong Lee
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Correspondence to Yong-Soo Kim.

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Lee, J., Kim, K. & Kim, YS. A Study on the NF3 Plasma Etching Reaction with Cobalt Oxide Grown on Inconel Base Metal Surface. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 39, 1145–1159 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-019-09979-4

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