PhD - Student Femtosecond Electrochemistry

Job Description

The world is facing a tremendous challenge in limiting global warming resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. Over the last decades, a lot of progress has been made in the harvesting of sustainable energy by solar panels and wind turbines. However, to truly establish an energy-sustainable society, we also need to store sustainable energy in an efficient manner, i.e. by transferring the electricity produced by the sun or wind into high-energy chemical compounds like hydrogen or methanol via electrochemical process. This constitutes a very important challenge to solve: present electrochemical devices have very low efficiencies and can often not be scaled up to convert large quantities of energy. Hence, there is a great need to create novel electro-chemical devices that are much more efficient in storing sustainable energy and that can be used at a large scale. To this purpose, we need to acquire a much better fundamental understanding of the working mechanism of electro-chemical devices.

In this project you will study the molecular structure of aqueous electrolyte solutions near electrode surfaces using advanced ultrafast spectroscopic techniques. One of these techniques to be used is femtosecond surface sum-frequency generation. The signal measured with this technique provides direct information on the nature of the vibrations of the molecules near the surface and on the orientation of the molecular groups carrying the vibrations. As a result, we can acquire detailed understanding of how the structure of the water molecules and dissolved molecules and ions close to the electrode surface depend on the composition of the solution, the nature of the electrode material and the applied bias to the electrode. In a next step we will study the dynamics of the water molecules and the dissolved molecules while the electrochemical reaction takes place. We will identify the reactive intermediate with time-resolved surface sum-frequency generation.

The research work will be carried out in close collaboration with other PhD students and post-docs within the Ultrafast Spectroscopy group of Prof. dr. H.J. Bakker. In this project we will also work closely together with the Theory group of Dr. B. Ensing at the University of Amsterdam and the electro-chemistry group of Prof. dr. M. Koper at the University of Leiden.

Qualifications

Masters degree in Physics or Physical Chemistry

Work environment

AMOLF is a part of NWO-I and initiate and performs leading fundamental research on the physics of complex forms of matter, and to create new functional materials, in partnership with academia and industry. The institute is located at Amsterdam Science Park and currently employs about 140 researchers and 80 support employees. www.amolf.nl

Working conditions

• The working atmosphere at the institute is largely determined by young, enthusiastic, mostly foreign employees. Communication is informal and runs through short lines of communication.
• The position is intended as full-time (40 hours / week, 12 months / year) appointment in the service of the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I) for the duration of four years
• The starting salary is 2.781 Euro's gross per month and a range of employment benefits.
• After successful completion of the PhD research a PhD degree will be granted at a Dutch University.
• Several courses are offered, specially developed for PhD-students.
• AMOLF assists any new foreign PhD-student with housing and visa applications and compensates their transport costs and furnishing expenses.

More information?

For further information about the position, please contact Huib Bakker: [email protected] and .

Diversity code

AMOLF is highly committed to an inclusive and diverse work environment: we want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select on the basis of competencies and talents. We strongly encourage anyone with the right qualifications to apply for the vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.

AMOLF has won the NNV Diversity Award 2022, which is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society for demonstrating the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

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