Applications are now closed.
About Us
Diamond Light Source is the UK’s national synchrotron science facility. By accelerating electrons to near light-speed, Diamond generates brilliant beams of light from infra-red to X-rays which are used for academic and industry research and development across a range of scientific disciplines including structural biology, physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, earth and environmental sciences.
The Project
Applications are open for a fully-funded PhD studentship in the field of “Pressure-dependent synchrotron studies of barocaloric materials for zero carbon heating and cooling". It is a collaborative effort (50:50) between Diamond Light Source and the University of Glasgow. The work is led by Dr. David Boldrin in the Materials and Condensed Matter Physics group (School of Physics and Astronomy) at Glasgow and Dr Eamonn Connolly on the I11 beamline at Diamond. The studentship will develop novel instrumentation for use with synchrotron radiation in order to study cutting-edge energy materials.
Heating and cooling result in over a third of the UK’s CO2 emissions and decarbonising these essential systems is imperative to reach the legal obligation of net-zero carbon by 2050 [1]. Barocalorics, materials that undergo large temperature changes under an applied pressure, are a promising technology to achieve this goal [2,3,4]. The challenge now is to tune these barocaloric effects away from the often-large operational hydrostatic pressures (>2.5 kbar), towards the low pressures (<1 kbar) required for a commercially competitive heating or cooling device. In order to do this, precise structure-pressure relationships of barocaloric materials in the 0-2kbar hydrostatic pressure range are required, yet this capability is currently lacking using synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction (SXPD). This project will build a medium pressure cell (0-2 kbar) on the I11 high-resolution powder diffraction beamline at Diamond Light Source and use it to study the pressure-temperature phase diagram of state-of-the-art barocalorics.
You will be an enthusiastic and self-motivated person who meets the academic requirements for enrolment for a PhD degree at the University of Glasgow. Applicants should hold or expect to obtain a First-Class Honours or a 2:1 degree at Master’s level (or equivalent) in Materials, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering or a related science. Time will be split 50:50 between the University of Glasgow and Diamond Light Source and at both institutes you will join a diverse, broad and collaborative group working on energy and functional materials. You will receive postgraduate teaching and skills training as part of the SUPA (Scottish Universities Physics Alliance) partnership, as well as the world-class opportunities at Diamond Light Source (see below).
[1] Clean Growth - Transforming Heating, BEIS, (2018). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/heat-decarbonisation-overview-of-current-evidence-base
[2] B. Li et al., Nature 567, 506 (2019).
[3] D. Boldrin, Appl. Phys. Lett. 118, 170502 (2021).
[4] https://www.royce.ac.uk/materials-for-the-energy-transition-caloric-energy-conversion/
Further Information
Diamond Light Source Ltd holds an Athena SWAN Bronze Award, demonstrating their commitment to provide equal opportunities and to advance the representation of women in STEM/M subjects: science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine.
Diamond jointly funds around 15-20 studentships every year with a variety of collaborators from both academic institutions to industry partners. Students accepted onto these projects will be part of our yearly cohort intake and are supported by both their academic and Diamond supervisors, as well as a dedicated Student Engagement team based at Diamond.
Diamond studentships are typically 50% funded by Diamond and 50% by the partnering university institution (or 25% funded by Diamond if there is a third party collaborator). Students are therefore required to spend 50% of their studentship at Diamond, with most students relocating to the local area for this period. Support on suggested accomodation options are provided by Diamond.
Benefits of Diamond's jointly funded studentships
Further Information
If you have further questions please contact the Student Engagement team on diamond.students@diamond.ac.uk.
Further guidance for students can be found here as well as more information about life at Diamond found here.
Applications are now closed.
Prospective candidates may make informal enquiries by contacting Dr. David Boldrin or Dr. Eamonn Connolly by email – david.boldrin@glasgow.ac.uk, eamonn.connolly@diamond.ac.uk – please include a CV and a cover letter.
Applications can be made at the following site, but please contact beforehand if you are interested: University of Glasgow
(choose Physics and Astronomy and select David Boldrin as supervisor)
For further information on the groups, please see the following websites:
https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/physics/research/groups/mcmp/
https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Instruments/Crystallography/I11.html
Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.
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