Hybrid interfaces and functionalized metals research
Hybrid structures are omnipresent in today’s society. These structure comprise organic and inorganic components as can be found in coatings in automotive applications, food packaging, aeronautics,… The durability and efficiency of such applications is largely dependent on what is happening at the meeting zone between the two materials: the hybrid interface. This nanometer scaled thin region is hard to assess as it is buried between two macrolayers of material. At SURF, we try to understand what is happening at these interfaces by unravelling the chemical interactions occurring and linking them to the surface properties of metals and metal oxides, the organic functional groups in the coating, the presence of (hybrid) conversion coatings, the surface structure and topography, and more.
Furthermore, we strongly focus on the durability of these structures in technologically relevant conditions. Therefore, we are constantly expanding the characterization platform that we have in place towards in situ, high lateral and depth resolution techniques that combine surface spectroscopy and electrochemistry in parallel, in situ. Furthermore, the experimental insights are reinforced by strong collaborations with theoretical groups at the VUB, where mechanisms and spectroscopic data are modelled.
Application of these advanced in-situ spectro-electrochemical techniques on exposed coated metal systems, elaborates crucial information on separate contributions of water and ions, taking hold of the electrochemical behaviour of the system. Coatings are designed by polymer experts of the VUB FYSC research group giving the benefit of engineered parameters of interest. The hand-in-hand collaboration of polymer chemists and electrochemists, broadens the existing knowledge to a robust understanding of the correlation between coating chemistry and transport phenomena within. These insights allow optimizing the nanoscaled features of hybrid structures in the interfacial zone, and are also expanded towards other applications where interfacial interactions are key such as in catalyst research.
Check out our research domains in our leaflet:
