PhD Vacancy: NPL-Imperial iCASE studentship: Characterising the performance of low loading electrode

NPL-Imperial iCASE studentship: Characterising the performance of low loading electrodes for electrochemical hydrogen technologies
Start date: September-October 2024 (flexible)
Supervisors: Professor Anthony Kucernak (Imperial College London, ICL), Dr Graham Smith (NPL)
This project is an Industrial-Case studentship based in the Chemistry department at ICL, with partners at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and RFC Power, which is a spinout of ICL. This project will focus on improving the understanding of electrodes used in electrolysers, flow batteries, and fuel cells. These devices allow the efficient capture of renewable electricity and its interconversion with hydrogen. Deployment of such electrochemical systems is growing at a tremendous pace but significant improvements to performance, cost, and longevity are still required.
The post-holder will gain experience in: - Electrochemistry with specific emphasis of the electrocatalysis of reactions involving gaseous reactants or products; - Development of ultra-low catalyst loading electrodes for high performance electrocatalytic system; - Electrochemical assessment of performance under a wide range of conditions; - Computational assessment of electrocatalytic performance of reactions The studentship will include >3 month placement with NPL (Teddington, London) and benefits from membership of NPL's post-graduate institute, accessing training, expertise on metrology and participation of cohort activities and networking events.
Further details of the Imperial Chemistry Department is here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/chemistry/ and details for the Kucernak group is available here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/kucernak-group/ Further details of the NPL Electrochemistry group and PGI are available here: https://www.npl.co.uk/electrochemistry and Postgraduate Institute for Measurement Science - NPL Further details of RFC Power is available here: https://www.rfcpower.com