Postdoctoral position - Aluminum - Corrosion - Paint - Accelerated testing - Electrochemistry

The INSTANT project is led by IRT M2P and aims to improve corrosion assessment in the aviation industry in collaboration with key partners such as Airbus Helicopters, Dassault Aviation, Safran, the Corrosion Institute and the LaSIE.

The corrosion assessment of materials, which is critical to aircraft reliability, has traditionally relied on salt spray tests that do not always reflect the actual conditions to which the parts are exposed in service. With the evolution of technologies and the European REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of CHemicals) regulation, it is becoming imperative to develop more representative and sustainable methods. It is in this context that the INSTANT project was initiated, with the aim of deploying a cyclic corrosion test capable of simulating the conditions encountered in an environment alternating foggy, wet and dry phases. This type of test, already widely used in the automotive field, is more representative than a steady-state test such as salt spray. Also, the use of electrochemical methods for the evaluation of paint protection performance will be investigated to propose a rapid protocol, complementary to corrosion chamber tests which can last several weeks for this type of system.

The objective of the study is to optimize a cyclic accelerated electrochemical test to evaluate the durability of a paint. It will be inspired by the ACET (Accelerated Cyclic Electrochemical Technique) test applied by certain manufacturers according to the ISO 17463 standard. To do this, the IRT M2P collaborates with the LaSIE academic laboratory located in La Rochelle, which has recognized expertise in the field of corrosion and more particularly in the study of painted systems. The objective of this work is to have a unique tool for monitoring the performance provided by the different paint systems (chromated, chromate-free, organic solvent, water solvent, sacrificial paint, etc.) to facilitate production control and, more ambitiously, to be able to reproduce the corrosion phenomena encountered on a paint in natural exposure.

This work will be conducted using the characterization methods available at LaSIE: electrochemical techniques (EIS), morphological observations (optical and scanning electron microscopy) and thermal and physico-chemical analyses (FTIR, DSC, TGA, EDX, Raman). The results obtained will be put into perspective with the accelerated ageing tests carried out in the other work packages of the project.

The candidate must hold a PhD thesis related to the study of protective coatings and/or corrosion protection, ideally on aluminum substrates. He or she must demonstrate strong expertise in the analysis and characterization of coatings and interfaces and/or corrosion phenomena, using the following techniques:

• Optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX),
• Thermal analyses (TGA, DSC),
• Infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopies,
• Electrochemical techniques: polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS).

Position starting beginning of 2026 for a period of 1 year and based at the LaSIE laboratory (La Rochelle University) with occasional travel to France.

Send us your complete application (CV with references and cover letter) :

• IRT M2P : Alexis RENAUD  - alexis.renaud@irt-m2p.fr
• LaSIE : Sébastien TOUZAIN - stouzain@univ-lr.fr