Two PhD student positions in Polymer Technology

The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering promotes research and education for sustainable development, for improved health and quality of life. Our research ranges from natural science and bioscience, applied chemistry and biotechnology to chemical engineering. Our educational programs are characterized by technological solutions for improving people’s everyday life, and are continuously developed for meeting and promoting societal and industrial development.

We have approximately 400 employees, divided into five research divisions and one administrative unit. We are situated at campus Johanneberg.

Our department is characterized by stimulation of world leading research, in an environment where people develop and create new knowledge.Information about the research
The research at Polymer Technology is focused on bulk polymers and organic electronics with an aim to produce new knowledge that can be used to develop new products and improved processes. All research are conducted in co-operation with industries and/or universities/institutes. Presently, the group consists of 1 professor, 2 assistant professors, 3 post docs and 11 PhD students.

Major responsibilities
Your major responsibilities as PhD student is to pursue your own doctoral studies. You are expected to develop your own scientific concepts and communicate the results of your research verbally and in writing in English. The position generally also includes teaching on Chalmers' undergraduate level or performing other duties corresponding to 20 per cent of working hours.

Description:

OSNIRO is a new Marie-Curie ITN project of 8 well-respected partners in the field of organic electronics. Start date of the project is October 1st, 2013.

Scientific targets of the project in the Polymer Technology Group at Chalmers University of Technology are synthesis, characterisation and application of NIR absorbing and emitting organic materials for organic electronics.

For the position 1:

Synthesis of oligomers and polymers with high photoluminescent and electroluminescent efficiency in near IR region. Promising molecules will be copolymerised with suitable high band gap polymers. The PhD student will be trained in design, synthesis and characterisation of conjugated oligomers and polymers. The design includes molecular modelling and insight into feasible synthetic reactions. Characterisation includes for example techniques such as NMR, IR, TGA, DSC, UV-Vis-NIR-absorption, MALDI-TOF, and molecular weight determination of polymers using SEC.

For the position 2:

Soluble oligomers and polymers will be synthesized having suitable energy levels for the combination with fullerene acceptor molecules for solar cells and photodetectors. The PhD student will be trained in the use of electrochemistry for evaluating the band positions. Materials having high absorption coefficients in the NIR range will initially be based on the use of small donor and acceptor moieties in the oligomer or along the polymer backbone. Several different analysing methods, in addition to the electrochemical methods, will be used by the ESR including MALDI-TOF, TGA and UV-Vis-NIR- absorption. Furthermore, high temperature SEC (trichlorobenzene, 135 oC) will be used for determining the molecular weight of the synthesised polymers.

We offer:

OSNIRO is a strongly interdisciplinary project that brings together partners from different scientific fields, including chemistry, physics, and device engineering. This opens the possibility for the fellow to learn not only about polymer and organic synthesis but also about device fabrication, integration and device characterisation. During secondments in industry the fellow will have the opportunity to get insight into industrial work processes. Candidates will be required to meet the Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher eligibility criteria (ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/wp/people/m-wp-201201_en.pdf, page 8). In particular at the time of appointment candidates must not have obtained a PhD or equivalent and have less than four years full-time equivalent research experience. Additionally, they should not have resided in Sweden for more than 12 months in the last 3 years prior to appointment (not including short stays or holidays).

Only applications using the online application tools for the positions will be accepted.
 
Position summary
Full-time temporary employment. The position is limited to a maximum of five years.

Qualifications
To qualify as a PhD student, you must have a master's level degree corresponding to at least 240 higher education credits in a relevant field.

The position requires sound verbal and written communication skills in English. 

Application procedure
The application should be marked with Ref 20130277 and written in English. The application should be sent electronically via Chalmers webpage.

Application deadline: November 20, 2013

For questions, please contact:
Prof. Mats Andersson, Applied Chemistry/Polymer Technology, mats.andersson@chalmers.se, +46317723401
Assistant Prof. Ergang Wang, Applied Chemistry/Polymer Technology, ergang@chalmers.se, +46317723410 




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