PhD Positions: Mechano-Catalytic Depolymerisation of Plastic Waste

Are you looking to do a PhD project and are you interested in catalysis, spectroscopy, mechano-chemistry, or polymer science to develop a sustainable pathway for plastic waste recycling through mechano-catalytic conversion? Join us in shaping a greener future!

Your job

Decades of polymer engineering have led to various plastic materials with a variety of tuneable properties and applications. Considerably less effort has gone into strategies on how to deal with the waste created. Only 13.5% of plastics made in the EU consist of recycling content, mainly because current recycling technology leads to a lower quality material. Chemical recycling is hailed as the solution but still has to take off. Join us in advancing chemical recycling methods and make a meaningful impact on plastic waste management!

Use your experience in catalysis, polymer science and/or mechano-chemistry to develop new recycling technologies for plastics using ball milling. You will enter a relatively unexplored field of chemistry together with an expanding team of PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers.

The core objective of this project is to pioneer the conversion of polyolefins into essential chemical building blocks like monomers. By unravelling the intricate interplay between mechanical forces, catalysis, and polymer chain cleavage, you will gain valuable insights into the fundamental mechanisms shaping the future of recycling technology. You will develop operando spectroscopic techniques to track the bond cleavage during ball milling. Embrace the array of cutting-edge spectroscopic and analytic techniques (e.g., EPR, SEC, Raman, IR and TGA) within the Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis (ICC) section, becoming an expert in mechano-catalytic depolymerisation. As part of this project, you will excel in a top chemistry group with an extensive variety of state-of-the-art equipment.

Your main tasks include:

• developing the fundamental relationship of reaction rate depending on ball milling parameters;
• overcoming the challenge of conducting spectroscopic measurements in the ball mill;
• developing novel surface activated mechano-catalysts;
• understanding the fundamental mechanism of surface-activated mechano-catalysis for polymer chain cleavage.

Your qualities

We are looking for 2 collaborative and enthusiastic PhD candidates who meet several or all of the following criteria:

• an MSc degree in chemistry or chemical engineering;
• motivation to contribute to solving the plastic waste issue;
• a strong interest in the fields of heterogeneous catalysis, spectroscopy, mechano-chemistry, and/or polymer chemistry;
• a creative team player with good English communication skills;
• hands-on experience in using or building chemical setups in the lab environment;
• the ability to work independently in a multidisciplinary environment.

Our offer

We offer:

• a position for four years;
• a fulltime working week and a gross monthly salary between €2,872 and €3,670 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale P under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.