Matthew O'Hara

Matt joined the Gordon Lab in October 2016, after graduating from the University of Southampton with an MEng in Mechanical Engineering, with a specialism in Materials. The focus of his project is improving the energy efficiency of the PEO process.

His early work involved characterising the difference in optical and electrical processing behaviour of the three main metals used in PEO processing: Al, Ti and Mg. This was linked to the electrical and thermodynamic properties of each respective metal oxide.

Later work studied the incorporation of particles suspended in the electrolyte with a view to improving both the coating quality and the thickness per unit energy consumed. A mechanism was presented for the incorporation of small particles suspended in the electrolyte. This is outlined in the paper below. A similar methodology is currently being applied to alumina fibres suspended in the electrolyte.