The aim of this Fellowship is to reinforce the excellence and competitiveness of European surface engineering and manufacturing industries by developing novel plasma surface technology through knowledge sharing and collaborative research with the incoming top-class plasma surface engineering researcher, Dr. Tian.
Multi-functional surfaces underpin the technological innovations in many high-tech industrial sectors to meet ever-increasing surface properties for challenging applications. Plasma surface alloying is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly surface engineering technology. However, currently no plasma technology can generate multi-functional surfaces by co-alloying with both interstitial and substitutional elements. This could be addressed by creating a novel plasma surface engineering technology by synergising the ‘double glow plasma (DGP)’ technology invented at the Researcher’s institute in China and the ‘active-screen plasma (ASP)’ technology developed by the Host.
To this end, (i) a novel ‘triple-glow plasma’ facility will be developed by modifying a ASP furnace in the Host by Dr. Tian, a leading DGP expert; (ii) a portfolio of multi-functional surfaces will be created by simultaneous plasma surface alloying with both substitutional elements (such as Ag, Pt, Cr, W) and interstitial elements (such as C, N, O, B); (iii) the plasma co-alloyed surfaces will be fully characterised and evaluated and (iv) novel triple-glow plasmas will be studied to advance scientific understanding.
The incoming fellow will pave the way to achieve the target by knowledge transfer and equally he will benefit from conducting research at a world-leading surface engineering research centre. This project will produce significant technical, economic and social benefits, thus contributing to European excellence and competitiveness. This Fellowship will also promote long-term collaborations and mutually beneficial co-operation between China and Europe.