Awarded – Bachelor's thesis honoured with the DGO Young Talent Award
The German Society for Electroplating and Surface Technology has been honouring outstanding work in the field of surface technology for 30 years. This is also the case in 2021, albeit without the usual ceremonial setting. This year, Luisa Schottstedt, a student on the Medical Engineering degree programme at Chemnitz University of Technology, received the DGO Young Talent Award for her bachelor's thesis on electrodeposited iron base layers in medical technology.
The work with the title „ Qualification of electrodeposited iron base layers as hard chrome replacement in medical technology " was completed in December 2020 at the Chair of Materials and Surface Engineering with the grade "very good". Based on a BMWi-funded project, research work shows that it is sensible and technically feasible to develop and qualify alternative coatings and alloys from REACH-compliant electrolytes. The aim of the award-winning work was to develop an electroplated layer deposition from the FeCrNi system that largely covers the broad spectrum of properties of hard chrome layers using a REACH-compliant electrolyte system modelled on high-alloy steels.
As a student on the degree programme Medical Engineering Luisa Schottstedt has focussed her work on applications in medical technology. Typically, hard chrome-plated materials are used in many applications in this field. For this purpose, FeCrNi layers were electrochemically deposited from a chromium(lll)-glycine electrolyte and special findings were obtained from the influence on the resulting layer properties through the use of direct and pulsed current, different electrolyte compositions and specifically influenced complex formation in the electrolyte. It has been possible to produce thick FeCrNi coatings (> 10 µm) from REACH-compliant chromium(lll)-glycine electrolytes using direct and pulsed current, which exhibit properties comparable to those of FeCrNi steel. The coatings produced are not yet wear-resistant enough to achieve the quality of hard chrome. However, the layer hardnesses exceed the values of CrNi steels without heat treatment, which can be considered a great success. Orientation tests on abrasion wear resistance show equivalent results with steels of this composition. The knowledge gained from this represents a significant expansion of previous knowledge about the processes of electrodeposition from chromium(lll)-based electrolytes.
The supervising team at the Chair of Materials and Surface Engineering is delighted to honour this worthy young scientist with the DGO Young Scientist Award and wishes Luisa Schottstedt every success in her Master's studies.
Image: Prof Lampke presents the 2021 DGO Young Talent Award to Luisa Schottstedt in front of the institute's own "Philosopher's Stone".
2.12.2021 – Students of the professorship ( dominik.hoehlich@mb… )
