PhD position on electrochemical nanofluidics for energy research

Job description

Teaser Text Modern energy technologies such as batteries, supercapacitors and fuel cells usually rely on nanoporous, disordered materials through which ions must travel. This nanoconfinement induces many forms of couplings between charge and fluid transport, in no small part due to the inherently high surface-to-volume ratio of these structures. Disentangling the various physical effects in messy, realistic materials represents a formidable challenge which has so far remained largely unmet, especially when charge is injected locally inside the structures by electrochemistry. In this research, you will construct artificial nanofluidic networks using lithography-based microfabrication. You will use these model systems to isolate, probe and manipulate the interactions between ion transport, electrochemistry and fluid dynamics, with the aim of understanding them and ultimately exploiting them to improve electrochemical energy devices. Examples include electrochemical self-induced convection, an effect we were involved in discovering, as well as creating positive feedback scenarios between electrocatalysis and ion spatial distributions. What you will do: You will be part of Iontronics,...