For reliable application at high-temperatures, the used materials and coatings require excellent resistance to various environments containing oxygen, hydrogen and water, nitrogen, carbon and sulphur. In addition to gaseous atmospheres, the materials can face aggressive deposits and their corrosion behaviour must be well understood under all conditions.

Our research is related to materials applied in solid oxide fuel and electrolyser cells, ammonia crackers, concentrated solar power plants, aircraft and power-generating gas turbines, chemical industry plants, heating elements. The investigated material types are martensitic / ferritic / austenitic stainless steels, FeCrAl and Ni-base alloys as well as various types of metallic (aluminide, MCrAlY) and thermal barrier coating systems.

We perform basic research e.g. through the oxidation experiments in oxygen tracers coupled with sputtered neutrals and glow discharge mass spectrometry to clarify oxide scale growth mechanisms. The test methods include oxidation in thermobalances for accurate determination of the isothermal reaction kinetics, long-term thermal cyclic tests in various gaseous media, testing under deposits and particle erosion testing in granulate beds under conditions relevant for practical applications. Post-exposure microstructural characterization of the alloys / coatings and the corrosion products is performed using glow-discharge optical emission spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, X-Ray diffraction as well as scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The work on the modelling of corrosion processes includes description of the growth mechanisms of surface scales based on Cr and Al oxide, environmentally induced internal oxidation and phase transformations in metallic substrates, as well as prediction of oxidation limited lifetime of thin-walled components and coating systems.