Biography
Caterina Zanella holds a PhD in Materials Engineering from University of Trento, Italy, awarded in 2010.
After a post-doc period and some industrial experience as coating specialist, in 2014 she was awarded the Marie-Curie/VINNMER fellow in the framework of “mobility for growth” program and started an international exchange period of 20 months between SP in Sweden and University of Trento in Italy. She spent that period to develop as independent researcher with a personalized development plan and collaborating to a research project on smart coatings.
In 2015 Caterina Zanella was merited with the Docent title in Corrosion and Surface Technology and since then she works as associate professor at the School of Engineering of Jönköping University.
In the same year she has been nominated member of the European Academy of Surface Technology (EAST) where she works actively to increase international collaboration and young scientist training.
Caterina is active in the internationally, working in European research projects and PhD networks, as well as acting as expert for the H2020 projects monitoring and reviewing actions.
At JTH, Caterina started a research group fostering 3 PhD students and a post-doc, developing new knowledge in the field of surface technology with national and international partners.
She is a passionate teacher and is responsible for courses at master and PhD level.
RESEARCH
Corrosion is a natural degradation process that most materials undergo when in contact with their working environment and can lead to failure. To protect materials from this degradation and to increase their durability, surface treatments can be applied to create new surface properties that the bulk could not achieve alone.
The innovation and development of new technology as well as more demands for a more sustainable use of resources increased the need of new surface treatments and more environmentally friendly processes.
In this field, Caterina´s research focuses on the application of electrochemistry to metal surfaces to study and understand their degradation mechanism and to produce new functional protective layers.
Coatings and bulk are studied as an integrated system, where the new property is the result of their combination and interaction. The research covers the synthesis of the surface treatments as well as the characterization and evaluation of the combined performance.
The main research topics are: new metallic plating systems, electrodeposition of functional dispersion coatings, anodizing, and corrosion protection of light alloys.
New metallic plating systems focus on the development of new plating bath or of the process for producing alloys that nowadays are not produced by electroplating or to improve the environmental sustainability of the today processes.
Functional dispersion coatings are layers where two or more different materials are combined to obtain a surface with enhanced and tailored properties. By dispersing particles with a special functionality in a metallic matrix, combined final properties can be obtained. For example by dispersing solid lubricant particles in a metal a self lubricating coating can be obtained.
Anodizing is an electrochemical treatment of alluminium alloys that creates a protective oxide layers on the metal surface increasing both protection and aesthetical appearance.
Corrosion protection of light alloys focuses on the corrosion mechanism of light alloys and how it relates to their heterogeneous microstructure. Specific phases in microstructure can make the alloy sensitive to corrosion and this understanding will support the development of smart protection systems, that locally hinder this interaction.
In general, all these topics the research is designed to study how the process parameters affect the surface performance and to tailor the process to the desired properties.
The research method is based on the experimental research where surface treatments are performed at lab scale varying a process variables, and the resulted material is characterized and evaluated to create a feedback for process optimization.
Article
Ahmadkhaniha, D., Lattanzi, L., Bonora, F., Fortini, A., Merlin, M., Zanella, C.
(2021).
The effect of co-deposition of sic sub-micron particles and heat treatment on wear behaviour of ni–p coatings Coatings, 11(2), 1-16.
Rosolymou, E., Spanou, S., Zanella, C., Tsoukleris, D., Köhler, S., Leisner, P., Pavlatou, E.
(2020).
Electrodeposition of photocatalytic sn-ni matrix composite coatings embedded with doped TiO2 particles Coatings, 10(8).
Iqbal, M., Secchi, M., Iqbal, M., Montagna, M., Zanella, C., Fedel, M.
(2020).
MgAl-LDH/graphene protective film: Insight into LDH-graphene interaction Surface & Coatings Technology, 401.
Sainis, S., Roșoiu, S., Ghassemali, E., Zanella, C.
(2020).
The role of microstructure and cathodic intermetallics in localised deposition mechanism of conversion compounds on Al (Si, Fe, Cu) alloy Surface & Coatings Technology, 402.
Zhu, B., Seifeddine, S., Jarfors, A., Leisner, P., Zanella, C.
(2019).
A study of anodising behaviour of Al-Si components produced by rheocasting Solid State Phenomena, 285, 39-44.
Eslami, M., Speranza, G., Fedel, M., Andersson, N., Deflorian, F., Omanovic, S., Zanella, C.
(2019).
Electropolymerization and possible corrosion protection effect of polypyrrole coatings on AA1050 (UNS A91050) in NaCl solutions Corrosion, 75(7), 745-755.
Gracco, A., Dandrea, M., Deflorian, F., Zanella, C., De Stefani, A., Bruno, G., Stellini, E.
(2019).
Application of a molybdenum and tungsten disulfide coating to improve tribological properties of orthodontic archwires Nanomaterials, 9(5).
Maryam, E., Payandeh, M., Deflorian, F., Jarfors, A., Zanella, C.
(2018).
Effect of Segregation and Surface Condition on Corrosion of Rheo-HPDC Al–Si Alloys , 8(4).
Ahmadkhaniha, D.
Huang, Y.
Jaskari, M.
Järvenpää, A.
Sohi, M.
Zanella, C.
, ... Langdon T.
(2018).
Effect of high-pressure torsion on microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of cast pure Mg Journal of Materials Science, 53(24), 16585-16597.
Leisner, P., Zanella, C., Belov, I., Edström, C., Sandulache, G., Hansal, W.
(2017).
Control of silver throwing power by pulse reverse electroplating Transactions of the Institute of Metal Finishing, 95(1), 25-30.
Eslami, M., Fedel, M., Speranza, G., Deflorian, F., Zanella, C.
(2017).
Deposition and Characterization of Cerium-Based Conversion Coating on HPDC Low Si Content Aluminum Alloy Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 164(9), C581-C590.
Eslami, M., Fedel, M., Speranza, G., Deflorian, F., Andersson, N., Zanella, C.
(2017).
Study of selective deposition mechanism of cerium-based conversion coating on Rheo-HPDC aluminium-silicon alloys Electrochimica Acta, 255, 449-462.
Zhu, B., Fedel, M., Andersson, N., Leisner, P., Deflorian, F., Zanella, C.
(2017).
Effect of Si content and morphology on corrosion resistance of anodized cast Al-Si alloys Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 164(7), C435-C441.
Zhu, B., Seifeddine, S., Persson, P., Jarfors, A., Leisner, P., Zanella, C.
(2016).
A study of formation and growth of the anodised surface layer on cast Al-Si alloys based on different analytical techniques Materials & design, 101, 254-262.
Deflorian, F., Rossi, S., Zanella, C., Fedel, M.
(2015).
Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) failure in marine areas of fixed guards for climbing Corrosion Engineering, Science and Technology, 50(6), 462-466.
Leisner, P., Zanella, C., Belov, I., Edström, C., Wang, H.
(2014).
Influence of anodic pulses and periodic current reversion on electrodeposits Transactions of the Institute of Metal Finishing, 92(6), 336-341.
Conference paper
Ahmadkhaniha, D.
Huang, Y.
Jaskari, M.
Järvenpää, A.
Heydarzadeh Sohi, M.
Zanella, C.
, ... Langdon T.
(2017).
Effect of high-pressure torsion on microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of cast pure Mg.
6th International Biennial Conference on Ultrafine Grained and Nano-structured Materials (UFGNSM 2017), 12th-13th November, 2017, Kish Island, Iran.
Ahmadkhaniha, D., Pinate, S., Leisner, P., Zanella, C.
(2017).
Electrodeposition of Ni high P composite coatings containing nano and submicro ceramic particles.
EUROCORR 2017, | 20th International Corrosion Congress & Process Safety CongressAnnual Congress of the European Federation of Corrosion 2017, September 3–7, 2017, Czech Republic.
Zhu, B., Fedel, M., Andersson, N., Leisner, P., Deflorian, F., Zanella, C.
(2017).
Influence of the Sr modification and post-treatment on corrosion resistance of oxide layer of cast Al-(low)Si alloys.
Joint European Corrosion Congress 2017, EUROCORR 2017 and 20th International Corrosion Congress and Process Safety Congress 2017; Prague; Czech Republic; 3 - 7 September 2017.
Leisner, P., Zanella, C., Belov, I., Edström, C., Sandulache, G., Hansal, W.
(2016).
Influence of pulse reverse plating parameters on throwing power in a silver cyanide bath.
7th European Pulse Plating Seminar, Vienna, March 3-4, 2016..
Zhu, B., Leisner, P., Zanella, C., Persson, P., Seifeddine, S., Jarfors, A.
(2015).
A study of formation and growth of the anodized surface layer on Al-Si casting alloys based on different analytical techniques.
EastForum 2015, Lund, 25-26 June, 2015..
Zhu, B., Leisner, P., Zanella, C., Persson, P., Seifeddine, S., Jarfors, A.
(2015).
A study of formation and growth of the anodised surface layer on Al-Si casting alloys based on different analytical techniques.
EastForum 2015 : Progress in Functional and Sustainable Surface Technology, Lund, June 25-26, 2015..
Deflorian, F., Rossi, S., Fedel, M., Zanella, C., Ambrosi, D., Hlede, E.
(2014).
Crevice corrosion study in marine environment of different materials for propulsion applications.
19th Int. Corrosion Congress, Nov. 2-6, 2014, Jeju, Korea.
Pavlatou, E.
Chrysagis, K.
Zoikis–Karathanasis, A.
Rasmussen, J.
Rasmussen, A.
Leisner, P.
, ... Panayiotakopoulos G.
(2014).
SelfClean: Novel Self-cleaning, anti-bacterial coatings, preventing disease transmission on everyday touched surfaces.
Industrial Technologies 2014, 9-11/4 2014, Athens, Greece.
Tsoukleris, D., Pavlatou, E., Spanou, S., Zanella, C., Leisner, P.
(2014).
Novel Self-cleaning, anti-bacterial Sn-Ni electrocoatings of high aesthetics and durability: Abstract s10-054.
65th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry, 31/8-5/9 2014, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Tsoukleris, D., Spanou, S., Köhler, S., Zanella, C., Leisner, P., Pavlatou, E.
(2014).
Study of tribological properties of nickel-based coatings reinforced by TiO2 nanoparticles produced by pulse electrodeposition.
1st African Congress of Tribology / Tribo Satellite Forum 2014, 24-30/4 2014, Marrakesh, Morocco.
Other publications