Announcement PhD position in Computational Materials Science at the University of Reading, UK, to work in the area of "High Performance Materials for Energy Harvesting". Supervisor: Dr Ricardo Grau-Crespo, currently based at University College London (ucl.ac.uk/~uccarg) but moving to Reading in September 2013) Project Overview: A PhD studentship is available to work on a project that seeks to apply a combination of experimental and computational approaches to create new high-performance thermoelectric materials. Such materials offer unique opportunities to convert otherwise waste heat directly into electrical energy. High-performance requires the unusual combination of high electrical conductivity (like a metal) with low thermal conductivity (like an insulator). The project seeks to engineer these features into materials containing relatively abundant elements to provide a low-cost alternative to the current commercial thermoelectric material, bismuth telluride. The student in this particular PhD position (reference GS13-39), supervised by Dr Grau-Crespo, will exploit computational approaches based on the density functional theory (DFT) to determine the detailed electronic band structure and ion distribution of the new phases. This information will enable a targeted approach to chemical substitution to be adopted. The work will be carried out in collaboration with the experimental group of Prof. Anthony Powell. The project will take place in new laboratories for Energy Materials established at the University of Reading. These offer excellent facilities for synthesis, measurement and computation. Eligibility: Candidates should hold or expect to gain a minimum of an upper second class honours degree in chemistry, physics, or materials science. Due to restrictions on the funding, these studentships are only open to candidates from the UK/EU Funding Details: The position is fully funded for 3.5 years and and cover PhD tuition fees, together with a tax free stipend (currently £13,590 per year). The studentships are expected to commence in October 2013, or as soon as possible after this date. If interested, please contact Dr Ricardo Grau-Crespo: [email protected]
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 06:36:31 +0000
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