Atomic Oxygen Erosion Behaivior Of Kapton Film And Pretective Coating

Kapton is used extensively on spacecraft primarily as flexible substrates for lightweight, high-power solar arrays because of its inherent strength, temperature stability, excellent insulation properties, ultraviolet (UV) stability and infrared (IR) transparency. However, polymeric material undergoes severe degration after being exposured on atomic oxygen (AO) in Low Earth Oribit (LEO).Oxide of Al and Al-Si alloy deposited on the kapton film by multi-arc ion plating. Negtive bias voltage and deposition time were changed to examine their role on the property of adhension between kapton film and oxide coating of Al or Si. Then both kapton film and protective coating were exposured on the ground-based simulation facilities for AO to study the erosion behavior of Kapton and protective film. The phases structure of the Kapton film and protective film were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The adhension force of Kapton and protective film were characterized on scratching test equipment. Finally, the performances of different coating systerm were compared to find an optimal technics parameter of ion plating.The results indicate that the protective film preparated by Al target is composed of A1 2 O3 and Al, the protective film preparated by Al-Si target is composed of A1 2 O 3 , SiO 2 , Al , Si and Al 3.21 S0.47. The Kapton undergo dramatically degradation and the oxide coating of Al or Si has excellent properties for AO effects in the course of atomic oxygen beam exposures. The best parameters are: Negtive bias voltage 200V; deposition time 10min.