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Full PhD Scholarship: Pressure-driven routes to ... (No replies)
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Pressure-driven routes to materials discovery and planetary formation - abundant element compounds at high pressures.
PhD project in the research group of Prof Simon Redfern, ASE, NTU Singapore
We are familiar with the fact that matter changes state, due to driving free energy changes, as a function of temperature or pressure - solid ice transforms to liquid water to gaseous steam as we heat it, or, transforms from solid to liquid as we add sodium chloride. The influence of pressure on matter is less-well studied, but is a much stronger effect. The discovery of room temperature superconductivity in mixtures of carbon, sulphur and hydrogen recently* is a consequence of the high density conditions of the mixture, held at more than two million atmospheres’ pressure. Such extraordinary physical phenomena and physical conditions can be achieved in laboratory experiments, and in computer simulations of materials, but they are also the conditions found deep in planetary interiors. When pressure is applied, the interatomic distances in materials may change significantly, modifying bonding and electronic structure. Pressure is now recognised as an important, if sometimes brutal, force for modifying the structures and properties of materials, so it also offers new opportunities for creating new materials, for materials discovery, and for unveiling novel physical and chemical properties of materials. It is also important for understanding how planets and their moon satellites form, and ultimately how dense matter in the universe behaves. The ten most abundant elements in our galaxy are H, He, O, C, Ne, Fe, N, Si, Mg and S. This project will take simple mixtures of light elements from this group (similar to the C-H-S superconductors mentioned above) up to high pressure to explore the new physics and chemistry that their combinations result in, to shed new light on materials discovery, as well as on planetary formation, geophysical and geochemical processes, and planetary evolution.
The project will suit a physics, chemistry, materials science or geoscience graduate with a good understanding of thermodynamics, materials structure and materials properties. It will provide training in high pressure experimental synthesis and characterisation methods, and will provide additional opportunities to use computational materials science approaches to inform and interpret experimental observation.
*Snider, E., Dasenbrock-Gammon, N., McBride, R. et al. Room-temperature superconductivity in a carbonaceous sulfur hydride. Nature 586, 373–377 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2801-z