Development of coatings for hostile environments

Diğer Ülkelerdeki Kamu Kurumları Tarafından Desteklenmiş Proje, 2020 - 2022

Barrier coatings are applied onto many components operating in hostile environments to prevent high

temperature oxidation, corrosion and wear, which lead to structural and performance degradation of the

components. Typical examples include the thermally and thermomechanically loaded parts of jet engines in

aeronautical applications, gas turbines in power generation or zirconium fuel rods in nuclear reactors, where a

loss of coolant incident may result in rapid oxidation of the rod. They are also applied onto metallic bipolar

plates in fuel cell devices for sustainable energy generation systems to reduce costs and enhance the

durability of the plates. Thus, barrier coatings are vital from an environmental and socio-economic point of

view, helping prolong the lifetime of components, reducing their cost and increasing the safe operation of the

component. A number of studies have implied that Y-doped Cr, Mo, Nb and Ta based nitrides are promising

candidates as barrier coatings for complex high temperature oxidising environments. Therefore, we are

proposing to develop a suite of Y-CrN films, alloyed with Nb, V, Mo and Ta deposited by reactive magnetron

co-sputtering. Coatings will be subjected to high temperature corrosion in air and steam, and their mechanical

and tribological properties and morphology will be studied and compared before and after the treatment.

Material characterization will run in parallel at Manchester and Erzurum to study their durability for applications

as barrier coatings for jet engines in the aeronautical industry and gas turbines, cladding rods and bipolar

plates in energy generation.