6 months Engineer traineeship / Master thesis Corrosion protection of water electrolyzer bipolar plates F/H

Description de l'entreprise

The French Corrosion Institute (IC)  is a non-profit SME that divides its activities between industrial R&D projects, consultancies and basic research with partners from both industry and academia. IC aims at excellence in research and has a well-established expertise in many industrial sectors, such as marine corrosion, aerospace, automotive industry, functional coatings and energy transition (among others).

In the context of an ongoing European seawater electrolysis project (SWEETHY), IC is looking for a motivated student for a duration of 5 to 6 months (starting ideally in the first quarter of 2026). Work location:  Technopôle of Brest, France.

Description du poste

Topic: Low-temperature water electrolysis, that can be operated both with fresh water or seawater, is a key-technology in the energy transition and consists of electrochemically splitting the water molecule to produce hydrogen and oxygen. However, there are still many scientific and technical challenges to be tackled in order to make this technology durable and economically competitive. One of them is the protection against corrosion of the metallic bipolar plates that connect single cells in a electrolyzer stack, in order to improve the durability of the technology.

Your tasks:

- You synthesize coatings for the protection of bipolar plates in seawater electrolysis.

- You investigate the corrosion behavior of various metallic materials with and without protective coatings at different potentials, pH, salinities and temperature using electrochemical techniques such as linear sweep voltammetry, chronoamperometry and impedance spectroscopy.

- You characterize the coated and uncoated metals in pristine and post-mortem states with the in-house tools (SEM, EDX/WDX, profilometry, Raman spectroscopy…).

- You analyze the results that you regularly report to the electrolysis R&D leader. You also contribute to the writing of scientific articles for peer-review scientific journals.

Profil recherché

Your profile:

- You are in the last year of your engineer/master studies in one the following fields: electrochemistry, chemistry, materials science.

- You have a theoretical knowledge and/or hands-on experience of electrochemistry and/or corrosion.

- You have an interest in energy transition and strong analytical skills.

- You are a team player and enjoy interacting with scientists of different backgrounds

- You are able to work autonomously in the lab (after a learning phase) with a rigorous mindset (notably concerning safety).

- A good command of English is compulsory for this position. Speaking French is a plus.

Réf: f996bc06-cd96-4f03-b9b9-a98cd9a69f9f