Bohdan Rashchenko and Maksym Romas, students at the Faculty of Engineering and Technology at Sumy National Agrarian University, were among the winners of the International Student Competition in Materials Science and received third-place certificates.
The competition ran from February to June 2026 and was hosted by the Kharkiv National Automobile and Highway University. It was organized with the support of the I. M. Frantsevich Institute for Problems of Materials Science of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and partners from Moldova. Participants from various higher education institutions took part in the competition, presenting research papers in the field of modern materials for engineering.
Their work focused on how to make metal parts more durable. To this end, the researchers studied protective coatings that reduce friction and slow down surface wear in machinery.
A key element of the study was graphene oxide—an advanced material that can enhance the strength and stability of coatings. The students tested how adding it affects the performance of surfaces under load and whether it helps increase their wear resistance.
The results showed that even a small amount of graphene oxide significantly improves the properties of coatings: it reduces wear, lowers friction, and increases surface durability under intensive operating conditions. This opens up opportunities for the application of such solutions in mechanical engineering.
The research paper “The Effect of Graphene on the Running-in Properties of Electrospark Coatings” was conducted under the supervision of Associate Professor Yevhen Konoplyanchenko and Professor Viacheslav Tarenko.
We congratulate the students and their research advisors on this achievement and look forward to new research projects that find practical applications.
