Materials Engineering: Fully Funded Swansea University and the Coated 3 Industry Fund PhD Scholarship: Zinc Coating Innovations for Superior Corrosion Performance

Funding providers: Swansea University's Faculty of Science and Engineering, and the Coated 3 Industry Fund

Subject areas: Material Science and Engineering, metallurgy, corrosion 

Project start date: 

• 1 July 2024 (Enrolment open from mid-June)

Supervisors:

• Professor James Sullivan (j.h.sullivan@swansea.ac.uk) 
• Professor David Penney

Aligned programme of study: PhD in Materials Engineering

Mode of study: Full-time 

Project description: 

Corrosion costs the UK around 3% of its GDP, this is around half the entire budget of the NHS. This project will design, make and test novel zinc based alloys that can be used in applications such as off shore wind to protect turbines from the harsh marine environment, in coatings for cars and trucks helping to extend life but also reduce weight and in buildings to prevent corrosion the likes of which were seen in schools because of the use of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete. Swansea University is well known for coatings and corrosion research and has unique equipment that can directly support this project.   

This PhD will use rapid alloy prototyping techniques combined with electrochemical corrosion assessment to design, prototype, screen, upscale, assess and demo the next generation of corrosion resistant zinc-based coatings.  

The goal is to produce new alloys and coatings that can be applied at scale and provide enhanced corrosion protection for steel assets in the renewable, construction, marine and automotive sectors. Coatings and alloys could be designed for minimal environmental impact across the life-cycle of the product. This includes choosing low impact elements, screening for resistance to different electrolytes and the use of elements that are not detrimental during recycling.   

Our facilities enable us to manufacture matrices of alloys at a small scale (3-40 g), rapidly evaluate their properties and upscale candidate alloys on our Hot Dip Processing Simulator.  

The following criteria have been identified for alloy selection: 

1. Galvanic with respect to steel  
2. Melting point <500°C 
3. Adhesion  
4. Enhanced corrosion protection 
5. Ethical and cost considerations 

This will massively increase the pace of zinc alloy development for corrosion protection. It combines computational methods with physical experimentation to explore a range of alloy combinations. 

The successful candidate will have an engineering or physical sciences first degree, ideally materials science or chemistry.