Manganese cobalt spinel oxides are promising materials for protective coatings for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) interconnects. To achieve high density such coatings are often sintered in a two-step procedure, involving heat treatment first in reducing and then in oxidizing atmospheres. Sintering the coating inside the SOFC stack during heating would reduce production costs, but may 2 result in a lower coating density. The importance of coating density is here assessed by characterization of the oxidation kinetics and Cr evaporation of Crofer 22 APU with MnCo 1.7 Fe 0.3 O 4 spinel coatings of different density. The coating density is shown to have minor influence on the longterm oxidation behavior in air at 800 °C, evaluated over 5000 h. Sintering the spinel coating in air at 900 °C, equivalent to an in-situ heat treatment, leads to an 88 % reduction of the Cr evaporation rate of Crofer 22 APU in air-3% H 2 O at 800 °C. The air sintered spinel coating is initially highly porous, however, densifies with time in interaction with the alloy. A two-step reduction and re-oxidation heat treatment results in a denser coating, which reduces Cr evaporation by 97 %.

April 1 st 2019 he was also the Deputy Head of the College of Engineering & Physical Sciences. He has been active in ceramics processing research since 1981 and has published ~220 refereed papers, as well as editing or contributing to 19 books and holding 7 patents with an 8 th recently submitted. He has attracted 129 research grants to date, totalling ~£16.5M, this includes a current portfolio of about £1.9M. The focus of his research is the generation of both the necessary scientific understanding and the required engineering solutions for the design and development of materials and process routes that display technical and/or economic advantages over existing approaches. The range of products worked on ranges from nanostructured to traditional ceramics, interpenetrating composites to ultra-high temperature ceramic matrix composites. He has worked closely with industry to translate key developments, e.g. through the creation of a spin-out company to develop a ceramic sensor for measuring soil matric potential (1991), or via licensing, e.g. manufacturing routes for producing engineering ceramic foams (1995) and nanostructured ceramics (2012). He has supervised 35 Ph.D. students and 2 M.Phil. students to successful completion and 38 postdoctoral researchers. A further 7 Ph.D. students and 6 postdoctoral researchers are currently being supervised with more positions currently advertised. His research has received both national and international recognition; he has given ~65 keynotes, plenary and invited talks at international conferences, whilst the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining has awarded him the Holliday Prize (1995), Ivor Jenkins Medal

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