Anti fouling coating characterization with purified Zirconia from West Kalimantan Zircon Sand for Boiler application

Zircon sand is a mineral material for zirconia purification which can be found in Indonesia. Zirconia has various functions, one of the function applied at Boiler high temperatures. The low coefficient of zircon thermal expansion indicates high thermal shock and spalling resistance. In this study, zirconia comes from Kalimantan zircon sand was applied to an anti-fouling coating. The purified zirconia is compared with zircon sand and synthetic zirconia. The purified zirconia yields a 82.48% Zr content, compared to the zircon sand has 70.85% Zr content and 89.43% in synthetic zirconia. The substrate used for coating is ferritic steel. The coating method uses a brush coating then sintered at a temperature of 400°C and 800°C. Coatings that contained purified zirconia have a rougher surface compared to coatings that contained zircon sand and synthetic zirconia. It is because the zirconia powder granules produced have a larger size. The microstructure also shows the surface of the coating with zirconia from the purification has a tenuous structure with large granules. It shows further treatment is needed in the purification of zirconia so that the grain size is homogeneous when applied to the coating.