Other fully funded PhD projects

Supervisors: Prof Mary Ryan and Prof Milo Shaffer  (as part of a research team involving Prof Magda Titrici, Dr Ajit Panesar and Dr Ifan Stephens
Start date: As soon as possible
Duration: 3.5 years
Entry requirements: Applicants should have a keen engagement and solid background in materials processing and characterisation and a demonstrated interest in electrochemical energy storage. Experience of air-sensitive chemistry, electrochemical characterisation and advanced characterisation will be an advantage. Applications are invited from candidates with (or who expect to gain) a first-class honours degree or an equivalent degree in Chemistry, Materials, Engineering or a related discipline.
Funding: Funding is available for UK citizens and EU citizens who have resided in the UK for the past three years. The studentship is for 3.5 years starting as soon as possible and will provide full coverage of tuition fees and an annual tax-free stipend of approximately £21,231.
Closing date for applications: Open until filled

PhD Industrial Studentship in “In situ Evaluation and Nanoscale Design of Battery Electrodes for Optimized Performance and Lifetime”

Project summary: Applications are invited for a Ph.D. studentship focused on nanoscale battery anode design within the Chemistry and Materials Departments at Imperial College London. Whilst the project will have a fundamental focus, it will contribute to the wider development of energy storage systems. As part of a collaboration with a major international industrial partner, the research will target the development of sodium ion battery systems for grid storage to support the implementation of renewable energies.

The project will focus on fabrication and detailed assessment of optimized architectures for electrodes in sodium ion batteries, based on numerical simulations carried out as part of the wider project. In particular, the PhD program will develop and implement advanced operando characterization tools, based on X-ray, Raman and electron microscopy. It will exploit state-of-the-art equipment available at Imperial, including a brand new suite of atomic resolution instruments specified for electrochemical device studies, and in situ cells available as part of a collaboration with the Diamond Light Source national Facility.

Queries: Informal enquiries and requests for additional information for this post: Professor Mary Ryan or Prof Milo Shaffer. 
               Any queries regarding the application process should be directed to John Murrell.

Committed to equality and valuing diversity.  We are also an Athena Bronze SWAN Award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Two Ticks Employer.

PhD Studentship in “High performance low operating temperature protonic conducting ceramic electrolysers”

Academic Supervisor: Prof. Stephen J. Skinner (Imperial)

Industry Supervisor: Dr Man Yi Ho (SLB)

Funding: EPSCR iCASE, both stipends and home tuition fees are provided for four years

Start Date: October 2025

Duration: 4 Years

Background: Solid oxide proton conducting ceramics, discovered by Iwahara¹ over 30 years ago have been extensively investigated for their application in proton conducting fuel cells. The recent and growing interest in the production of green hydrogen, underpinned by international governmental strategies, including the US hydrogen hubs,² has renewed interest in proton conducting oxides for application in high temperature electrolysers. Proton conducting ceramic electrolysers (PCEC) offer several advantages over the comparable solid oxide electrolyser (SOE), Figure 1, with temperatures compatible with waste heat from industrial processes, thus offering a route to decarbonisation of industrial processes. Whilst the PCEC has been identified as a route to green hydrogen production there are numerous areas for materials and systems optimisation, with mechanistic understanding of the electrode processes at both anode and cathode being of key concern.

Figure 1: Comparison of a) solid oxide and b) solid protonic electrolysis cells

Project: In this PhD project we will focus on developing detailed mechanistic understanding of the operation of composite electrodes consisting of a novel hexagonal perovskite protonic conductor with an electronic conducting phase (e.g. Ni) incorporated. The transport processes to be investigated include ion transport through the oxide phase, charge transfer across interfaces and both hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions. Recent discovery of the Ba₇Nb₄MoO₂₀^3,4 and Ba₃NbMoO_8.5⁵ hexagonal perovskite compositions have identified both protonic and oxide ionic transport in these phases, but few studies of the electrochemical performance of these materials in electrolysers, nor any understanding of the long term durability and cyclability of the cells.  Targeting electrolyser operation there will be two key aspects to this PhD project: 1) manufacture and testing of single electrolysis cells based on the identified hexagonal perovskite compositions, including detailed characterisation of the mechanism of ion transport and subsequent degradation of electrochemical performance, including selection of compatible electrodes and 2) development of new compositions based on the prototypical materials, and engaging with materials discovery approaches such as molecular dynamics and density functional theory calculations to provide predictors for performance.  From these studies we will identify the rate limiting electrochemical processes in next generation materials in a planar proton conducting electrolysis cell.

[1] H. Iwahara, Solid State Ionics, 28-30 1988 573-578

[2] https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-7-billion-americas-first-clean-hydrogen-hubs-driving 

[3] M. Yashima et al, Nature Commun., 12 2021 556

[4] S. Fop et al, Nature Mater., 19 2020  752-757

[5] S. Fop et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 138 2016 16764-16769

Supervisors: Professor Neil Alford and Dr Daan Arroo
Start date: October 2025
Duration: 4 Years
Entry requirements: Ideally, you will hold, or be expected to achieve, a Master’s degree or a 4-year undergraduate degree at 2:1 level (or above) in a relevant subject, e.g. Material Science, Physics, Electrical Engineering or any other related discipline.
Funding: The studentship is for 4 years and will provide full coverage of tuition fees and an annual tax-free stipend of £24,237
Eligibility: Applicants must be ‘UK Residents' as defined by the EPSRC. 

Project summary: 

Masers – the microwave version of lasers - have long been used to detect signals for deep-space communications and radio astronomy due to their exceptional sensitivity and low noise, but traditional maser devices require vacuum and cryogenic cooling which has limited their use to date to these niche applications. The Maser Research Group at Imperial has pioneered the use of quantum materials such as diamond enriched with nitrogen vacancies to create a new generation of masers capable of operating in ambient conditions [Arroo et al., APL], culminating in the development of portable prototype devices which can be tested in realistic environments [Ng et al., APL].

Applications are sought for an ICASE Award studentship to explore how these devices can be optimised through a combination of device and materials engineering. This will include optical and microwave characterisation of functional quantum materials, the design and fabrication of maser devices and testing these devices in collaboration with an industrial partner to achieve quantum-limited measurements.

The project will ideally suit an applicant with an interest in quantum technology and device engineering.

The PhD will be carried out with support from the Henry Royce Institute (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/royce-facilities/) and will contribute to the work carried out on the NAME Programme grant (https://name-pg.uk/).

Applications will be assessed as received and all applicants should follow the standard College application procedure. Please apply to the Department of Materials.

To apply, please go to the application portal.

Queries: Informal enquiries and requests for additional information about this studentship can be made to Dr Daan Arroo and Professor Neil Alford. Any queries regarding the application process should be directed to Dr Annalisa Neri.

Supervisors: Prof Arash Mostofi (Imperial College London) & Dr Ali Karimi-Varzaneh (Continental Tires Germany Gmbh)

Duration: 42 months, starting October 2025 (a later start date may also be considered)

Funding: Tuition fees and stipend for UK or international students

A fully funded PhD studentship in the Department of Materials at Imperial College London is available starting on 1^st October (a later start date may also be considered). The position (and full funding of tuition fees and stipend) is available to both UK and international students.

Elastomers (e.g., natural rubber) are a very versatile class of polymeric material. Their diversity of technological application is made possible by the ability to tune their constituent building blocks at multiple length-scales, from the chemical groups within individual monomers to the molecular architecture of each polymer chain, to their overall morphology on the mesoscale and by additions such as inorganic nanoparticles to make elastomer nanocomposites.

In this project, you will use theory and computer simulations to understand and predict the mechanical failure of silica-polymer nanocomposites and the mechanisms by which the chemistry of the interface influences mechanical properties. The problem is inherently multi-scale: the bond-breaking processes at the nanoparticle-polymer interface that initiate failure are quantum-mechanical in nature, yet the mechanisms by which stresses are transferred through the disordered polymer occur on length-scales far in excess of anything that can be simulated quantum-mechanically.

Building on earlier work at Imperial [1, 2], we will develop and use a hybrid, multi-scale approach in which the majority of the system is described with a computationally efficient interatomic force-field, and regions in which bond-breaking is about to occur are identified on the fly and are treated quantum mechanically. We will focus first on silica (SiO₂) nanoparticles and polymers such as polyisoprene, which are commonly used in industry and atomic models for which have already been developed by researchers at Continental [3-5]. As the project proceeds, we will consider a variety of different polymers and chemistries of attachment to the nanoparticles.

This project is a collaboration between Imperial College London and Continental, and there will be opportunities to spend some time during the course of the project working at Continental in Hannover, Germany.

Applicants should have a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in the physical sciences at the equivalent of a UK First or Upper Second Class. We strongly encourage applications from under-represented groups.

The funding (subject to successful completion of final stages of contractual arrangements), will cover tuition fees at the UK or international student rate plus a stipend of £21,237 per year.

Entry requirements and the application process are available at https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/apply/postgraduate-doctoral/application-process/.

For technical and scientific enquiries, please contact Prof Arash Mostofi. For further information about the application process, please contact Dr Annalisa Neri. For further information about the Department, please see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/materials.

 Closing date: applications will be assessed on a rolling basis, so early application is strongly advised.

References

[1] Golebiowski et al, J. Chem. Phys. 149, 224102 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5035508

[2] Golebiowski et al, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 22, 12007 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1039/D0CP01841D

[3] Meyer et al, Macromolecules 50, 6679 (2017); https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.7b00947

[4] Hager et al, Macromolecules 48, 9039 (2015); https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.5b01864

[5] Meyer et al, Scientific Reports 7, 11275 (2017); https://dx.doi.org/ 10.1038/s41598-017-11728-6