Formation of Functional Hybrid Glasses for Adsorptive Applications

Description

This studentship is an opportunity for a highly motivated candidate to participate in an exciting project based in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Liverpool (https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/chemistry/). The Department is an international centre of excellence for materials discovery and advancement, and the supervisor Dr Lauren McHugh has a strong background in materials chemistry. The studentship is fully funded for a period of 42 months, commencing in October 2023.

The project is experimentally based and provides an exciting opportunity to work in the new and dynamic research area of hybrid glasses. Glasses are ‘frozen liquids’, produced mainly by rapid cooling of a liquid to form a disordered state. Hybrid glasses are the disordered, or non-crystalline forms of typically crystalline hybrid materials, i.e., those which contain both inorganic and organic building blocks. Examples of hybrid materials which form glasses are metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIPs).

Recent research has shown the rapid and scalable synthesis of hybrid materials and their glasses, and the formation of functional composite materials containing crystalline and glassy components. This project will first involve the synthesis of hybrid materials and the subsequent formation of their glassy forms. The focus will then be on carefully tuning the properties of hybrid glasses, including their porosity and mechanical stability, to provide revolutionary new families of highly functional and precisely engineered materials, with improved features and applicability in key areas such as gas adsorption and separation.

The multidisciplinary nature of the project sits at the interface between chemistry, materials science, and engineering. This will enable the candidate to develop a diverse skillset in areas including the targeted design and synthesis of materials, detailed structural analysis, and extensive thermal and adsorptive characterisation. Additionally, the project will promote personal development in teamwork, establishing collaborative networks, and in scientific communication - achieved by attendance at national and international scientific conferences, and by the publication of research papers.

Qualifications: Applications are welcomed from candidates with, or expecting to hold, at least a 2.1 degree in chemistry, materials science, engineering, or a related subject. Experience in structural characterisation, thermal, or adsorptive analysis is highly desirable, though not essential.  

For further information, please contact Dr Lauren McHugh (L.N.Mchugh@liverpool.ac.uk). Informal enquiries are always welcomed.

How to Apply: To apply, please visit the following website: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/how-to-apply and follow the instructions. Please ensure that the following reference is quoted on your application: Formation of Functional Hybrid Glasses for Adsorptive Applications (Reference CCPR053).

This opportunity will remain open until the position has been filled and so early applications are encouraged.

 

Availability

Open to EU/UK applicants

Funding information

Funded studentship

The award will cover fees at the Home rate and an annual stipend at the EPSRC-DTP rate for 3.5 years. The stipend for 2022/2023 is minimum £17,668 pa, with the possibility of an increase for 2023/2024. Details on eligibility may be found via this link.

This award does not cover non-UK applications, though self-funded applicants are welcomed.

 

 

Supervisors

References

Mechanochemically synthesised dicyanamide hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites, and their melt-quenched glasses, Chem. Commun., 2022, 58, 3949-3952. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/xx/d2cc00278g/unauth

Properties of Single-Component Metal–Organic Framework Crystal-Glass Composites, Chem. Eur. J., 2021, 28, e202104026. https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/chem.202104026

Introducing porosity into metal–organic framework glasses, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022, 10, 19552-19559. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2022/ta/d2ta02560d