Surface Engineering

• Fundamentals of surfaces: roughness and spatial parameters, correlations with surface machining, surface forces, mechanisms of adhesion, testing
• Friction and wear: friction laws, mechanisms of wear, degradation of materials, testing
• Lubrication: solid and liquid lubricants, types of lubrication, surface adsorption of boundary lubricants
• Decorative and functional coatings: electrodeposition, electroless deposition, immersion plating, conversion coatings and top coats, CVD techniques, thermal spraying, galvanizing and zinc flakes
• Anodization of light alloys: hard and soft aluminium anodization, coloring and electrocoloring
• MEMS and surface micromachining: silicon micromachining, stiction and adhesion phenomena, self-assembled monolayer

Surface Technology

• PVD techniques: vacuum production and detection; plant layout, process control and applications of vacuum evaporation, sputter deposition and arc deposition
• Advanced ceramic coatings: nanostructured and nanocomposite coatings; self-lubricating layers
• Thermochemical treatments: carburizing and nitriding, plasma-assisted processes
• Performance of coated components: sources of residual stress in coatings; wear and fatigue resistance of coated parts
• Microstructure evolution: regimes of grain boundary diffusion in coatings and thin films, kinetics of coarsening
• Sintering: surface-related driving force; solid-state, liquid-phase and pressure-assisted techniques, sintering maps, sintered materials

Oral exam