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Job Materials innovation institute M2i - PhD researcher (~315)

PhD researcher (~315)

Job description

Glue mortars are used for joining building materials, e.g. tiles on concrete surfaces. Open time of glue mortars can be defined as the time in which joining these materials can be achieved without a decrease in performance of the joint. The open time will affect the rate of application of the tiles and also the final adhesion. Therefore, considerable effort is undertaken by product manufactures to improve the open time. TNO has worked together with several industrial partners on this topic. However, the exact processes that determine the open time of glue mortars are unclear. To efficiently improve the products knowledge of the processes that determine the open time and adhesive force is important. Several processes can determine the open time: chemical reactions (carbonation), water content, water transport, concentration and transport of additive materials. In this project the aim is to measure and model these processes and relate them to the open time. One of the techniques that will be applied to investigate the transport processes is nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging. With NMR nuclei such as H, F, P, Na can be measured. With NMR it is feasible to measure transport processes, chemical changes, pore size distribution and possibly also the flow of additive materials. Next to NMR other measurement techniques will be applied to investigate chemical and structure changes, such as: optical image profiling, SEM, FT-IR, TGA, etc.

Requirements

The PhD candidate must have a master degree in physics or chemistry. We are looking for a highly motivated candidate, and experience in the field of NMR, experimental work, transport processes or adhesion is an advantage. The PhD candidate will be applying the techniques mentioned above, with a specific focus on NMR to measure the transport processes. The PhD student will combine the results to determine the processes that determine the open time and final adhesion. The work shall be performed at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) at the department of applied physics, in the group transport in permeable media (TPM) in close cooperation with the Dutch organization of applied research (TNO). In the Transport in Permeable Media group (TPM) research is carried out on transport and phase changes in permeable media. Transport and phase change processes in porous building materials, bricks and coatings are studied. The studied phenomena play a key role in the durability of building materials. NMR is one of the important techniques used in this group to measure these transport processes.

Conditions of employment

When fulfilling a PhD position at M2i, the candidate will be given the status of PhD Researcher. He/she will have employee status and will be eligible for all the employee benefits offered by M2i. The contract is for 4 years. Gross salary for the first year is EUR 2,242 gross per month. This amount increases to EUR 2,587 gross per month in the fourth year. The PhD thesis should be completed at the end of the 4th year term with the M2i. The researcher and the supervisor will draw up a plan for any additional training and supervision that is specifically needed.

Contract type

Temporary

4 years

Organisation

Materials innovation institute M2i

Additional information

For more information about M2i and TU/E, please visit the following websites: www.m2i.nl 

and www.tue.nl

 

 

The short URL code for this job opening is: 3180
Direct link to this job www.academictransfer.com/3180