Corrosion-resistant materials
Despite decades of research, corrosion remains a very important omnipresent problem as corrosion leads to the degradation of a material. This research field deals with fundamental electrochemistry and the development of corrosion resistant thin films.
- The development of new corrosion resistant inexpensive multicomponent alloys for use in fuel cells.
- Fundamental corrosion research on magnetron sputtered alloys including p-elements (i.e., N, C, Si).
- Fundamental research of corrosion resistant coatings with high entropy alloy (HEA) compositions
The development of new corrosion resistant inexpensive multicomponent alloys with high entropy alloy (HEA) compositions for use in fuel cells.
Our research is focused on the development of new corrosion resistant multicomponent coating, with highly improved corrosion resistances. Our studied materials include high entropy alloy (HEA) compositions, containing the metals such as: Co, Cr, Fe, Mn, Nb, Zr, Ti, Ta etc. for producing low-cost and lightweight bipolar plates for the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The PEM fuel cells are currently undergoing a rapid development in many countries as a complement to battery-powered cars. The development of corrosion resistant thin films for manufacturing bipolar plates will reduce the PEM-fuel cell production costs. Our studies include several electrochemical methods such as potentiostatic techniques (i.e., chronoamperometry), potentiodynamic techniques (i.e., cyclic voltammetry, polarization curves), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.
Contact persons: Maria Paschalidou, Prof. Leif Nyholm, and Prof. Ulf Jansson
Fundamental corrosion research on magnetron sputtered alloys including p-elements
We specialize in the development of magnetron sputtered thin film coatings of many different alloys with extremely high corrosion resistance. The developed alloys are often multicomponent compositions containing the metals Al, Cr, Nb, Y, Zr, Ti, Ta, W and Ni. Additional alloying with nitrogen, carbon and silicon allows us to fabricate extremely dense coatings that are resistant to corrosion even in pitting electrolytes and highly oxidizing potentials. We characterise corrosion using potentiodynamic polarisation tests, electrochemical impedance measurements, electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, x-ray photoelectron microscopy and x-ray diffraction.
Contact persons: Maria Paschalidou, Prof. Leif Nyholm, and Prof. Ulf Jansson
