Rate My Professor Jan Froitzheim

Jan Froitzheim is Professor in the Division of Energy and Materials within the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology. His main research interest is high temperature corrosion, with a particular focus on metallic materials for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC). He studied Materials Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt and later at Chalmers University of Technology. Froitzheim obtained his PhD from RWTH Aachen University in 2009, with a doctoral thesis entitled 'Ferritic steel interconnectors and their interactions with Ni base anodes in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC)'. During his doctoral period from 2005 to 2008, he worked as a researcher and PhD student at Forschungszentrum Jülich.

At Chalmers, Froitzheim advanced from Associate Professor to full Professor, contributing extensively to research on oxidation mechanisms, chromium vaporization, protective coatings, and interconnect materials for SOFC and solid oxide electrolysis cells. His highly cited publications include 'Reduction of chromium vaporization from SOFC interconnectors by highly effective coatings' (Journal of Power Sources, 2007, 421 citations), 'Development of high strength ferritic steel for interconnect application in SOFCs' (Journal of Power Sources, 2008, 314 citations), 'Evaluation of the oxidation and Cr evaporation properties of selected FeCr alloys used as SOFC interconnects' (International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2013, 255 citations), 'The effect of temperature on chromium vaporization and oxide scale growth on interconnect steels for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells' (Journal of Power Sources, 2015, 187 citations), and 'Electrically conductive diffusion barrier layers for metal-supported SOFC' (Solid State Ionics, 2008, 175 citations). Recent works cover topics such as Ce/Co and Ce/FeNi coatings for interconnects (International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2026), PVD Ce-coating for additively manufactured Ni-base alloys (npj Materials Degradation, 2025), and oxidation of additively manufactured Inconel 939 (Corrosion Science, 2024). With over 84 publications listed in Chalmers Research portal and more than 2,660 citations on ResearchGate, his research has substantial impact in the field. Froitzheim participates in funded projects including 'Towards a sustainable society: Developing metallic materials to advance solid oxide technology' (VINNOVA, 2021–2024) and 'In-situ investigation of corrosion by neutron reflectometry – Formation, growth and failure of protective oxide films on metals' (Swedish Research Council, 2019–2023), collaborating frequently with researchers like Jan-Erik Svensson, Anton Chyrkin, and Claudia Goebel.