Forschung

Analysis of fundamental processes during plasma-assisted coatings with diamond-like carbons (DLC) on plastic materials

The surface of various materials can be protected with special coatings against outer influences and stresses. Additional properties inaccessible by the basic material prior to coating can be achieved as well (e.g. higher durability, improved abrasion strength, biocompatibility etc.). Especially the coating of plastic materials with modern carbon protective layers (amorphous diamond-like carbon layers, DLC) reduces for instance the abrasive wear of material. Our research is explicitly focused on the plasma-assisted coating of diamond-like carbon (DLC) on selected plastic materials using various analytical methods. Clarification of the single steps during the deposition process will give detailed information about the adhesive and bonding behavior on the boundary layer between the existing soft and produced hard material. By assigning the possible interactions like direct deposition, interlayer formation and erosion[1] to the occurring microscopic processes between the generated plasma and the basic plastic material, deposition methods can be optimized thus leading to improved material properties.

[1] Christian B. Fischer, Magdalena Rohrbeck, Stefan Wehner, Matthias Richter, Dieter Schmeißer, submitted for publication in Appl. Surf. Sci. 2012.

Corrosion protection for metals with renewable and biocompatible materials

Metallic surfaces can be passivated and protected by various anticorrosive coatings. The majority of those petroleum-based protective coatings have to be professionally disposed due to their toxicity or environmental risk. The application of bio-based and biodegradable corrosive protection would reduce environmental contamination, save resources and at the same time minimize efforts and costs for adequate decomposition. In this project we prove an equivalent corrosion protection capability and the effectiveness of selected bio-based corrosion inhibitors. The corrosion experiments are arranged and developed in homemade DIN-conform spray corrosion chambers.

Projekte