What experiments can be conducted using a multi zone rotating electric furnace for experiments?

The experimental multi zone rotating electric furnace, with its core functions of independent temperature control, furnace tube rotation, and atmosphere control, can be widely used in fields such as material synthesis, heat treatment, catalytic reactions, battery material preparation, and special process research. The specific experimental scenarios and advantages are as follows:

1. Material synthesis and sintering
Ceramic material sintering
Experimental requirements: Ceramic materials such as alumina and silicon nitride need to be sintered and densified at high temperatures. Traditional single temperature zone furnaces are prone to cracking or high porosity due to uneven temperature.
Advantages of multi temperature zone rotary furnace:
Temperature gradient control: By rapidly increasing the temperature in the high temperature zone (such as 1600 ℃) in the front section and slowly cooling in the low temperature zone in the back section, thermal stress is reduced and cracking is avoided.
Rotating uniform heating: The furnace tube rotates at 5-15 rpm to continuously roll the ceramic powder during the sintering process, increasing the density of the sintered body and reducing the porosity.
Application case: A university customized a three temperature zone rotary furnace for the synthesis of two-dimensional transition metal sulfides (2D TMDs). The yield of single-layer MoS ₂ was improved by using a high-temperature zone sulfide metal precursor in the front section, controlling the number of layers in the mid temperature zone in the middle section, and annealing in the low-temperature zone in the back section.
Preparation of nanomaterials
Experimental requirement: The size and morphology of nanoparticles have a significant impact on performance, and precise control of reaction temperature and atmosphere is required.
Advantages of multi temperature zone rotary furnace:
Atmosphere control: Introduce a mixture of H ₂/Ar atmosphere (ratio 1:9), combined with rotation function, to narrow the particle size distribution of Pt nanoparticles.
Gradient temperature control: Set a low-temperature zone (200-400 ℃) for nucleation, and a high-temperature zone (800-1000 ℃) to promote crystal growth and optimize nanowire morphology.

2. Heat treatment and metallurgical processes
Metal Annealing and Quenching
Experimental requirement: Metal materials need to be annealed to eliminate internal stress and improve toughness. Traditional furnaces are prone to performance differences due to uneven temperature.
Advantages of multi temperature zone rotary furnace:
Rotational stress relief: The rotation of the furnace tube ensures uniform heating of the metal sample, resulting in improved material toughness consistency after annealing.
Gradient quenching: By controlling the cooling rate in different temperature zones, the grain refinement and hardness improvement of high-strength steel are achieved.
Powder metallurgy forming
Experimental requirement: Powder metallurgy materials need to be densified at high temperatures, as traditional furnaces are prone to uneven density due to powder accumulation.
Advantages of multi temperature zone rotary furnace:
Rotation promotes sintering: The rotation of the furnace tube allows the powder particles to fully contact, and a single processing of 50kg of metal powder can improve production efficiency.
Vacuum environment: equipped with a two-stage vacuum pumping system of mechanical pump and molecular pump (maximum vacuum degree ≤ 10 ⁻⁴ Pa), reducing impurity doping and lowering defect density.

3. Catalytic Reaction and Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)
Catalyst preparation
Experimental requirement: Catalyst activity is closely related to morphology, and precise control of reaction temperature and gas flow rate is required.
Advantages of multi temperature zone rotary furnace:
Coordinated control of temperature and atmosphere: In the preparation of fuel cell catalysts, a customized H ₂/Ar mixed atmosphere is used to uniformly disperse Si particles in the carbon matrix through rotational heat treatment, resulting in improved initial charge and discharge efficiency.
Gradient reduction: Set a low-temperature zone (300 ℃) for pre reduction and a high-temperature zone (600 ℃) for deep reduction to improve the activity of platinum carbon catalysts.
CVD film growth
Experimental requirement: The quality of the film is significantly affected by temperature uniformity and gas flow.
Advantages of multi temperature zone rotary furnace:
Rotation promotes gas flow: By rotating the furnace tube at a 30 ° tilt angle, the gas is promoted to flow on the surface of the sample, improving the uniformity of the deposition layer to over 95%.
High vacuum environment: In GaN epitaxial growth, the vacuum environment reduces impurity doping and improves the luminous efficiency of LED devices.

4. Preparation of battery materials
Positive and negative electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries
Experimental requirement: The positive and negative electrode materials need to be improved in electrochemical performance through processes such as carbon coating and sintering.
Advantages of multi temperature zone rotary furnace:
Rotating uniform coating: Rotating heat treatment in Ar atmosphere improves the uniformity of carbon coating thickness on the surface of graphite negative electrode, resulting in high capacity retention after 100 cycles.
Gradient sintering: setting a low-temperature zone (400 ℃) for pre oxidation and a high-temperature zone (800 ℃) for carbonization, optimizing the structure of lithium cobalt oxide cathode material.
Fuel cell materials
Experimental requirement: The membrane electrode assembly (MEA) needs to be hot pressed under high temperature and high pressure, as traditional furnaces are prone to performance degradation due to uneven temperature.
Advantages of multi temperature zone rotary furnace:
Rotating hot pressing: The furnace tube rotates to evenly heat the MEA, and the thickness deviation of the membrane electrode after hot pressing is ≤ 1 μ m, improving performance stability.
Atmosphere control: Introduce a mixed atmosphere of H ₂/N ₂ to simulate the working environment of fuel cells and optimize catalyst activity.

5. Special Process Research
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Experimental requirement: Simulate extreme environments such as the Earth’s core to study the laws of material phase transitions.
Advantages of multi temperature zone rotary furnace:
High temperature and high pressure collaborative control: equipped with a high-pressure gas inlet and pressure monitoring device, it can achieve high-temperature synthesis at 1600 ℃ under a pressure of 10MPa, and explore new high-pressure phase materials.
Rotating uniform pressure: The furnace tube rotates to evenly compress the sample, avoiding local stress concentration that may cause experimental failure.
Waste disposal and resource recycling
Experimental requirement: Pyrolysis of plastics and biomass to generate fuel oil requires temperature and atmosphere control to prevent secondary pollution.
Advantages of multi temperature zone rotary furnace:
Gradient pyrolysis: set a low-temperature zone (300 ℃) for volatilization analysis, a medium temperature zone (500 ℃) for cracking, and a high-temperature zone (800 ℃) for gasification, resulting in an increase in fuel oil yield.
Rotation to prevent coking: The rotation of the furnace tube allows the pyrolysis gas to be discharged in a timely manner, reducing coking on the inner wall of the furnace tube and extending the service life of the equipment.