Department of Material Sciences specializes mainly in applied research of progressive surface treatments with the aim to improve corrosion and mechanical properties of metallic structural materials. The department owns laboratories equipped with modern technologies for the surface modifications as well as with devices to analyze surface, electrochemical, chemical and mechanical properties of wide range of structural materials. Besides the main research activities, the department also provides consultations and analyses within research and development tasks of engineering companies.
Members
Ing. Daniel Kajánek, PhD.
Ing. Filip Pastorek, PhD.
Ing. Zuzana Florková, PhD.
doc. Ing. Libor Trško, PhD.
prof. Ing. Branislav Hadzima, PhD.
prof. Ing. Otakar Bokůvka, PhD.
M.Sc. Ružica Nikolič, Ph.D.
Ing. Juliána Dziková, PhD.
doc. RNDr. Peter Minárik, Ph.D.
Ing. Michal Jambor, PhD.
Ing. Jana Pastorková
Ing. Martina Jacková
Ing. Róbert Cibula
The members of the department actively cooperate with top-notch research institutions across Europe (Italy, Germany, Croatia, Poland, Malta and others) and the results of the research are continuously published in high-ranked scientific journals such as Acta Biomaterialia, International Journal of Fatigue, Advanced Engineering Materials, Surface and Coatings Technology, Materials and Design and so on. The department also supports leading companies in the region. Within the research activities were successfully realized projects in the scope of UNIZA, VEGA, APVV grant agencies and projects financed from the EU structural funds.
The main research fields of the department are:
• Surface treatment of progressive metallic materials with applications in transport related to improving the corrosion resistance of metallic materials in aggressive environments and increasing of mechanical and fatigue properties of structural materials with the aim to decrease the weight of transport vehicles and reduce the carbon footprint.
• Research in the field of biomedical engineering is mainly related to development of biodegradable implants from ultra-light magnesium alloys working in the human body environment. The main focus is on increasing the corrosion stability with use of biocompatible surface modification, which would increase the lifetime of the implant and after finalization of the functional phase, the implant would slowly degrade and dissolute within the human body.
The main analytical and consultation activities for industry are:
• Residual stress evaluation in the surface layers of metallic materials with use of the x-ray diffraction.
• Evaluation of retained austenite content in heat-treated steels.
• Corrosion exposure tests.
• Microstructure and material’s discontinuity evaluation by metallography techniques.
• Identification of failure modes and fracture characteristics.