PhD student position

PhD student position in Nanostructured Materials from Bio Residues, closing date 2008-04-18

The Division of Manufacturing and Design of Wood and Bionanocomposites at Luleå University of Technology, Skellefteå, Sweden, has a PhD student position available for research on development of novel nanostructured materials from industrial bio residues.

Nanostructured materials isolated/separated from wood and other bio resources is a new and exciting research field. There is a huge potential to develop novel processing routes for isolation of nanosized materials from industrial side streams and add a value for waste products. Our goal is to develop processing technologies for isolation and separation of cellulose nanocrystals and fibrils from different sources. These whiskers and fibrils are purified, characterized and used as nanoreinforcements for different biopolymers.

In this project we wish to expand our successful work in the area of processing of novel bio based nanocomposites and develop new processing routes for nanoreinforcements from different industrial side streams, for example from ethanol production or residues from biopellets production.

The research conducted here will be a mix of experimental and theoretical work. This project is financed by Sparbanksstiftelserna Västerbotten and the practical work will be done with our collaborative partners, Skellefteå Kraft, SEKAB and Processum Biorefinery Initiative.

We seek a PhD student with a Masters degree in Materials Science, Polymer Engineering, Polymer Chemistry, Processing Engineering (or an equivalent degree), preferably with a good knowledge in cellulose chemistry, separation technologies, polymer materials. You should be a good team player and have an ability to take initiative.