The Molecular Materials and Nanosystems group at Eindhoven University of Technology is looking for excellent candidates for an open PhD position in the area of organic redox flow batteries.

The transition towards renewable energies will require large-scale electrical storage solutions in order to address the intermittency of these resources. Redox flow batteries are an excellent candidate for this application as they store electrical energy in liquid electrolyte solutions which allow for straightforward and economic scaling of battery capacity by simply increasing the tank size. In this project you will develop new carbon-based organic materials that can be utilized as high performance storage material. The infinite possibilities of organic chemistry enable the synthesis and study of materials with improved storage capacity and stability over existing technologies.

This project aims to improve our understanding of structure-property relations of organic redox active materials for energy storage. To this end, you will employ a combination of organic synthesis and electrochemistry to design new materials and characterize their physical properties by spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques. Furthermore, the performance of these redox active materials will be extensively evaluated in flow battery prototypes. These results in combination with predictive computational modelling will be used to advance the state-of-the-art in this field and generate materials that have the potential to be used for large-scale energy storage.

This research is set in a close collaboration between the Molecular Materials and Nanosystems Group at the TU/e and DIFFER (Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research). You will work closely with other researchers in the M2N group at TU/e and at DIFFER under the supervision of Dr. Koen Hendriks. You will lead the experimental work and provide input for predictive computational work that will guide us towards new and improved materials as well as a deeper understanding between molecular structure and battery performance.

The Molecular Materials and Nanosystems Group is an interdepartmental research group at the TU/e active in the Departments Chemical Engineering and Chemistry and Applied Physics. It brings together researchers from these two fields and aims at establishing a coherent research program on the chemistry, physics and materials science of organic and inorganic molecular systems. The overall research objective is to investigate and develop molecules, macromolecules and nanostructured materials with tailored physical properties. The tunability of the electronic, magnetic and optical properties may lead to future applications in advanced technological devices such as batteries, light-emitting diodes, photovoltaic cells and memories.

The successful candidate will have:

A Bachelor degree in Chemistry with top grades. The candidate should hold (or expect to obtain very soon) a  Master degree in Organic/Material Chemistry or Electrochemistry.

A strong background and interest in synthetic organic chemistry. In particular, experience in electrochemistry will be considered a definite advantage.

A strong motivation and independence to tackle and complete challenging, multi-faceted problems.

The ambition to excel at multi-disciplinary research ranging from synthetic chemistry to battery prototyping.

Excellent collaboration and communication skills to bridge between various disciplines.

The start date is as soon as possible.

An exciting research project in a novel research field.

A full-time appointment for four years at Eindhoven University of Technology, with an intermediate evaluation after 12 months.

Gross monthly salary from € 2.222 (first year) to € 2.840 (fourth year), in line with the Collective Agreement for Dutch Universities.

An attractive package of fringe benefits, including a personal development program for PhDs (PROOF program), holiday and end-of-year allowances, and excellent sports facilities.

Information about the PROOF Program can be found here.