TY - JOUR A1 - Probst, Anne-Catherine A1 - Stollenwerk, Manfred A1 - Emmerich, Florian A1 - Büttner, Andre A1 - Zeising, Sebastian A1 - Stadtmüller, Johannes A1 - Riethmüller, Franziska A1 - Stehlikova, Veronika A1 - Mingwu, Wen A1 - Proserpio, Laura A1 - Damm, Christine A1 - Rellinghaus, Bernd A1 - Döhring, Thorsten T1 - Influence of sputtering pressure on the nanostructure and the X-ray reflectivity of iridium coatings JF - Surface and Coatings Technology N2 - Reflective mirror coatings made of iridium are used in X-ray telescopes of the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) launched in 1999 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to investigate astronomical sources at photon energies below 10. keV. These coatings were produced in a DC magnetron sputtering process and have so far proven their suitability for space-based applications. We are considering in the present paper the processing of thin iridium films for lightweight telescopes using the radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique with an oblique angle deposition. The coating development presented here is focused on the influence of total sputtering pressure on film properties as well as on its impact on the mirror's performance. Characterisation methods such as X-ray diffractometry, X-ray reflectometry, atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy have been used. Correlations between morphology, density, surface micro-roughness, crystal structure of the iridium layer and the expected reflectivity of the X-ray mirror are described and discussed. KW - Iridium KW - sputtering KW - microstructure KW - coating KW - X-ray KW - Iridium KW - Röntgenteleskop Y1 - 2017 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfcoat.2017.10.062 SN - 0257-8972 VL - 2017 IS - 343 SP - 101 EP - 107 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Probst, Anne-Catherine A1 - Begou, Thomas A1 - Döhring, Thorsten A1 - Zeising, Sebastian A1 - Stollenwerk, Manfred A1 - Stadtmüller, Johannes A1 - Emmerich, Florian A1 - Lumeau, Julien ED - Publishing OSA, T1 - Coating stress analysis and compensation for iridium-based x-ray mirrors JF - Applied Optics N2 - Iridium-based coatings for mirrors of x-ray telescopes are studied. In particular, stress-induced deformation is characterized and shown to be compressive and equal to −1786  MPa. Two methods for stress compensation are then studied. One relies on the deposition of silica on the back surface of the substrate and a second one relies on the deposition of a chromium sublayer. Advantages and drawbacks of each of these techniques are presented. KW - iridium KW - coating stress KW - X-ray KW - mirror KW - astronomy KW - Röntgenteleskop KW - Iridium KW - Spiegelteleskop Y1 - 2018 UR - https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.57.008775 VL - 2018 IS - 57 (29) SP - 8775 EP - 8779 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Döhring, Thorsten A1 - Rödling, Claudius A1 - Kimmel, Kevin A1 - Zeising, Sebastian A1 - Stadtmüller, Johannes A1 - Stollenwerk, Manfred A1 - Verma, Shruti A1 - Rees, Paul T1 - Optical characterization of reflective coatings for astronomical telescope mirrors T2 - DGaO Jahrestagung N2 - With ground based optical telescopes astronomers observe celestial objects over a wide spectral range. As usually three or even more reflections at telescope mirrors are involved, good reflection properties of the mirror coatings are important. The aluminum evaporation technique has been - and is still - the standard solution for the reflective coatings of large astronomical mirrors. Such coatings have excellent reflectivity in the ultraviolet and in the visible, but perform poorly in the infrared. Silver is the metal having highest reflectivity for wavelengths longward of 400 nm, but isn´t the best choice for reflectivity in the ultraviolet and for blue light. To avoid degradation by oxidation, durable silver coatings need to be protected by transmitting overcoating layers. In the presented study, different metallic coatings – including unusual ones like sputtered iridium - are characterized to identify a coating that is most suitable for the spectral range from ultraviolet to infrared. Experimental results are compared to simulations based on the complex refractive indices of these materials. Thereby dependence of incidence angle and polarization is also considered. N2 - Poster KW - mirror KW - coating KW - iridium KW - astronomy KW - telescope KW - Spiegelteleskop Y1 - 2021 UR - https://dgao.de/jahrestagung/ VL - 2021 SP - 1 EP - 1 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Freudenmann, Dominic A1 - Stollenwerk, Manfred A1 - Döhring, Thorsten A1 - Stadtmüller, Johannes A1 - Negri, Michele A1 - Lauck, Felix T1 - Combustion efficiency of iridium coated pellets for environmentally friendly space propulsion T2 - 14th Pico- and Nanosatellite Workshop, Würzburg, Germany N2 - Most of the satellite engines still uses critical fuels such as hydrazine, which is chemically aggressive, toxic and carcinogenic. New developments for satellite engines try to avoid such critical propellants. One promising approach is the usage of rocket-grade hydrogen peroxide [H2O2] in mono- and bipropellant driven rocket engines. Catalysts in the rocket engines convert the hydrogen peroxide by an exothermic catalytic reaction; the resulting hot gases oxygen and water vapor provide the thrust. Currently used catalysts are, for example, Al2O3 pellets impregnated with platinum. Within a joint research project of Aschaffenburg University and the German Aerospace Center new catalysts are developed. They consist of ceramic pellets coated with iridium using the magnetron sputtering process. Thereby the surface structure of the iridium layers strongly depends on the used sputtering process conditions [1]. After optimization of the sputtering parameters, it was demonstrated in laboratory experiments that the catalytic effect (measured by the volume of released gas) can be increased by a factor of four compared to platinum impregnated pellets [2]. In first hot firing tests at the test bench complex M11 at the DLR- Institute of Space Propulsion, these new, iridium-based catalysts have been used in a model combustion chamber for hydrogen peroxide decomposition. For this purpose, the reaction chamber was filled with iridium pellets in the high-altitude simulation chamber of the M11.2 test bench. The model chamber was equipped with numerous measuring devices like temperature and pressure sensors (e.g. Tcat, pcat). With the help of the mass flow and the herein obtained data, performance characteristics of the propellant system were accessible. High-concentrated hydrogen peroxide was used in the experiments as monopropellant (~ 87-wt.% H2O2). During the experiments, the combustion chamber was operated in pulse mode and in continuous mode. Aim of this campaign called MoCa (“Monopropellant Catalytic Demonstrator”) is the demonstration of functionality and the performance evaluation of this iridium-based monopropellant system. Recent experimental results will be presented. References: [1] A. Büttner et al., Thin Solid Films 2018, 662: 41–46 [2] M. Stollenwerk et al., Journal of Materials Science 2021, 56(16), 9974-9984 KW - Satellitentechnik KW - Katalysator KW - Iridium Y1 - 2021 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Döhring, Thorsten A1 - Stadtmüller, Johannes A1 - Stollenwerk, Manfred A1 - Cotroneo, Vincenzo A1 - Pareschi, Giovanni A1 - Gibertini, Eugenio A1 - Magagnin, Luca T1 - Low-density coatings for enhanced X-ray reflectivity of astronomical telescope mirrors T2 - DGaO Proceedings N2 - High reflectivity grazing incidence mirrors of astronomical X-ray telescopes are usually coated with thin layers of iridium, gold, or platinum. Due to a series of absorption edges, these noble metals have low reflectivity in the 2 - 4 keV band. We present the development of innovative material combinations using chromium and an additional layer of polydopamine for enhanced reflectivity X-ray coatings. KW - Dopamin KW - Iridium KW - mirror KW - coating KW - X-ray KW - Röntgenteleskop Y1 - 2021 UR - https://www.dgao-proceedings.de/download/122/122_p3.pdf SN - 1614-8436 VL - 2021 IS - 122 SP - 1 EP - 2 PB - DGaO ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Döhring, Thorsten A1 - Rödling, Claudius A1 - Kimmel, Kevin A1 - Zeising, Sebastian A1 - Stadtmüller, Johannes A1 - Stollenwerk, Manfred A1 - Verma, Shruti A1 - Rees, Paul T1 - Optical characterization of reflective coatings for astronomical telescope mirrors T2 - DGaO Proceedings N2 - Aluminium evaporation is still the standard solution for reflective coatings of large astronomical mirrors. Silver and gold are also used in specific cases depending on the targeted wavelength. This study characterized different metallic coatings - including unusual ones like sputtered iridium - to identify the most suitable mirror coating for the spectral range from ultraviolet to infrared wavelengths. KW - Iridium KW - mirror KW - coating KW - reflectivity KW - telescope KW - Spiegelteleskop Y1 - 2021 UR - https://www.dgao-proceedings.de/download/122/122_p4.pdf SN - 1614-8436 VL - 2021 IS - 122 SP - 1 EP - 1 PB - DGaO ER - TY - GEN A1 - Döhring, Thorsten A1 - Stadtmüller, Johannes A1 - Stollenwerk, Manfred A1 - Cotroneo, Vincenzo A1 - Pareschi, Giovanni A1 - Gibertini, Eugenio A1 - Magagnin, Luca T1 - Low-density coatings for enhanced X-ray reflectivity of astronomical telescope mirrors T2 - DGaO Jahrestagung N2 - X-ray telescopes usually operate in space and are quite different from astronomical telescopes for visible light. For normal angles of incidence, optical light is reflected on the mirror surface, whereas X-rays are either transmitted or absorbed. However, also high reflectivity X-rays mirrors are possible, when the incident rays direction is almost parallel to the mirror surface. Such grazing incidence mirrors are usually coated with thin layers of precious metals like iridium, gold or platinum, as this result in high X-ray reflectivity. These noble metals offer a wide range of reflection up to high photon energies, but, due to a series of absorption edges, have low reflectivity in the 2 - 4 keV band and below. This contribution presents the development of innovative material combinations based on thin layers of iridium and chromium, followed by an additional layer of carbon-based materials. We also discuss corresponding production methods (like dip coating) for enhanced reflectivity mirror coatings of future X-ray telescopes. N2 - Poster KW - X-ray KW - mirror KW - coating KW - iridium KW - satellite KW - Röntgenstrahlung KW - Spiegelteleskop Y1 - 2021 UR - https://dgao.de/jahrestagung/ VL - 2021 SP - 1 EP - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stollenwerk, Manfred A1 - Döhring, Thorsten A1 - Freudenmann, Dominic A1 - Schäfer, Tobias A1 - Stadtmüller, Johannes A1 - Röcke, Nicole T1 - Sputtered highly effective iridium catalysts: a new approach for green satellite propulsion JF - Journal of Materials Science N2 - This work demonstrated the large potential of sputtered iridium metal for catalytic reactions shown by the example of decomposition of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for space propulsion systems. For this purpose, iridium was coated onto Al2O3 pellets by a sputter process under varied process parameters. Depending on previously selected parameters, the obtained metal-loaded pellets offer closed- and/or open-shell structures. Catalytic productivity of these first-generation iridium-sputtered catalysts was estimated in laboratory experiments and compared to platinum-loaded pellets. Under optimized sputter-process conditions, the reactivity is significantly improved compared to the platinum-impregnated pellets. The better catalytic productivity can be explained by the increased active surface area of the iridium layers on the pellets. The surface morphology and the microstructure of the iridium coating can be actively controlled by the sputter pressure. The results are in accordance with the sputtering process pressure tendency described by the Thornton Structure–Zone Model. KW - Iridium KW - Katalysator KW - Satellitentechnik Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-021-05897-z VL - 2021 IS - 2021 SP - 1 EP - 11 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Döhring, Thorsten A1 - Stollenwerk, Manfred A1 - Stadtmüller, Johannes A1 - Freudenmann, Dominic A1 - Röcke, Nicole T1 - Nanostructured iridium catalysts for effective hydrogen peroxide decomposition T2 - EuroNanoForum N2 - The EU intends to restrict the use of critical fuels in space propulsion systems. These propellants like hydrazine are chemically aggressive, toxic and carcinogenic. Space propulsion of the future should be environmentally friendly, inexpensive, and easy to handle. Aschaffenburg University and DLR are currently developing environmentally friendly technologies for future satellite engines. Thereby rocket-grade hydrogen peroxide, which is foreseen as a substitute, is converted to uncritical water vapour and oxygen by an exothermic catalytic reaction on nanostructured iridium layers. The resulting hot gases provide the required amount of thrust. The iridium catalyst layers are coated onto ceramic pellets, using RF magnetron sputtering technology. The catalytic functionality was tested afterwards at the chemical laboratories of DLR. First experimental results show a significantly higher catalytic activity for nanostructured iridium surfaces than for smoother crystalline layers. N2 - Poster KW - satellite KW - propulsion KW - catalyst KW - iridium KW - hydrogen peroxide KW - Iridium KW - Katalysator KW - Satellitentechnik Y1 - 2021 VL - 2021 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Amorim, Isilda A1 - Spera, Natalia C.M. A1 - Nicoara, Nicoleta A1 - Ramasamy, Devaraj A1 - Alves, Diana F. A1 - Stollenwerk, Manfred A1 - Stadtmüller, Johannes A1 - Döhring, Thorsten A1 - Sadewasser, Sascha A1 - Kolen'ko, Yury V. A1 - Sousa, Juliana P.S. T1 - Overall alkaline water electrolysis over active, stable, low loading iridium catalysts sputtered on nickel foam JF - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy KW - Iridium KW - Katalysator KW - Wasserstoffelektrolyse KW - Wasser KW - Elektrolyse KW - Wasserstofferzeugung Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2024.10.306 SN - 0360-3199 VL - 92 SP - 852 EP - 864 PB - Elsevier BV ER -