Job announcements relevant to people interested in electronic structure calculations…
Due to the large number of posts recently, there is currently a delay of several weeks between posts being submitted and the corresponding emails being distributed to all users. Please bear with us while we try to improve this. In the meantime – and until this notice is removed – it would assist us considerably if you could submit only important and/or urgent posts and thus help to reduce the size of the mail queue. Under no circumstances should you resend posts multiple times when you find the emails are not distributed immediately.
In light of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, we request that announcements relating to events, jobs and other activities associated with institutions supported by the Russian and Belarusian states are not posted to the Psi-k forum.
PhD Scholarship in Energy Storage (No replies)
Back to Job listings...
A 4-year PhD fellowship in energy storage is available at the Combustion Chemistry Centre of National University of Ireland Galway. The center is focusing on research using ab initio quantum calculation, gas-phase and gas-solid phase kinetics, combustion chemical kinetics, and energy science. The PhD fellowship is in concerned with energy storage a key area of research with global ramifications. Candidates with strong interest in reaction processes in computer science, materials science, physical chemistry, or a related field are invited to apply.
Focus Area
Using first principles to predict which are the optimum bimetallic catalysts for the absorption and decomposition of ammonia ― the primary carrier of hydrogen.
Job description
Energy systems play a key role in harvesting energy from various sources and converting it to the energy forms required for applications in various sectors, e.g., utility, industry, building and transportation. Energy sources like fossil fuels can be used to provide energy according to customer demand, i.e. they are readily storable when not required. But other sources such as solar and wind energy need to be harvested when available and stored until needed. Applying energy storage can provide several advantages for energy systems, such as permitting increased penetration of renewable energy and better economic performance. Also, energy storage is important to electrical systems, allowing for load leveling and peak shaving, frequency regulation, damping energy oscillations, and improving power quality and reliability.
Compared to tank storage and carbon-based materials, chemical storage of hydrogen has the highest gravimetric/volumetric energy density. As one of the most promising chemical hydrogen carriers, liquid ammonia has high gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen storage. The key challenges in using NH3 as a hydrogen storage intermediate are making the decomposition of NH3 and the subsequent separation and purification of the H2 product energy efficient, reliable and scalable. The focus of the PhD project will, explore the influence of the interaction between catalysts and ammonia, determining the rate limiting steps and calculate the catalytic conversion of ammonia to hydrogen; and releasing the programme developed which can be used to analysis the catalytic process of ammonia on different metal surfaces and also to determine the conversion efficiency of ammonia to hydrogen on different catalysts.
Qualification requirements
The candidate should in the areas of computer science, materials science, chemistry, physics or related fields. The project will require the use of different software, and programming skills.
The candidate must be able to work independently and progress in the research work by own achievements. He/she must be creative in solving computational challenges. It is expected that the candidate has a strong research-ethical approach. A fundamental part of the work will be the reporting of the results, and the candidate must be experienced in writing technical/scientific reports. All applicants must be able to communicate fluently in English (in speaking and writing).
In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal suitability, in terms of the qualification requirements specified in the advertisement.
Contacts, application material and deadline
Interested applicants should send (i) a detailed CV, (ii) contacts of three references, to Dr. Chong-Wen Zhou at [email protected]. Deadline for application submission: July 30, 2022.