FUNCOAT

Development and design of novel multifunctional PEO coatings

Foto: Hereon/Wolfgang Dietzel

Project start date: 01/01/2019
Duration of the project: 48 months
Funding for the Project (€): 1,301,800

The main objective of the project is the development of multi-purpose, multi-functional surfaces via environmentally friendly plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) treatments. With a novel approach, the weakness of the PEO process (the inherent porosity due to the discharges forming the coating is often responsible for poor properties) is used to functionalize the coating using the open pore structure as a reservoir for nanocontainers or to bring particles with certain functionalities deep into the coatings (fast pathways). The main targeted functionalities are enhanced fault tolerance and active protection against corrosive damage as well as improved tribological behavior. Moreover, to extend this typical field of applications of PEO treatments and address additional industries and aspects, a set of less common functionalities, such as photocatalytic, magnetic, thermo- and electro-conductivity will be added. This is challenging and goes far beyond the state-of-the-art introduction via post-treatments. To deal with such sensitive materials, changes in the power supply are required and this is addressed as one of the key points of the project as well.

The essential key of the project is the formation and development of an interdisciplinary R&D partnership, where participants from both academia (five) and private sector (four SME) in four EU Member States or Associated Countries and in one Third Country participate, promoting and sharing their ideas, expertise, techniques and methods to solve this demanding challenge. This partnership will be beneficial for all participants, since new PEO hardware, environmentally friendly processes and applications important for industry
are developed, evaluated and promoted by the research institutions via presentations and publications of the obtained results. Laboratory based training and intersectional transfer of knowledge are key aspects of the FUNCOAT project, and the partnership gathers the topmost competences to carry out the suggested research program.

Hereon acts as the project coordinator and leads the work packages ‘PEO modification for transport application’, ‘Coordination and management’, and ‘Ethics requirements’.

FUNCOAT project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 823942.
More information for the Consortium is available HERE:
https://powerfolder.hzg.de/login

Consortium