Fundamental mechanisms of corrosion processes and corrosion protection strategies are the core topics of the research in our group. Often, these involve electrochemical processes which are relevant in general electrochemistry (including electrocatalysis, batteries or electrolysis) as well, such as the electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction, the hydrogen evolution reaction, or alloy dissolution. In our research, we use amongst others a wide variety of electrochemical techniques.

A speciality of our group is the interfacing of electrochemical experiments with in situ and operando optical spectroscopy experiments, amongst others with infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and ellipsometry. Likewise, we require detailed post mortem analysis of samples, as by electron microscopy, or vacuum based surface analysis techniques. In general, topics are related to the surface chemistry of reactive metals, some of them with relevance in engineering, such as iron, aluminium and zinc. However, many studies also focus on model systems, such as simple semiconductors, e.g. Si, Ge, or oxides, such as ZnO, SiO₂ or Al₂O₃.

There is also a wide variety of corrosion protection strategies; we are interested in their fundamental aspects, such as the function of inhibitors, the interface chemistry of organic coatings, the formation of conversion coatings, to name just a few examples.

Department of Materials Science and Engineering - FINS