Research Associate in Green Chemistry Crystallisation and Quartz Crystal Microbalance Sheffield, England
Job description
We have an exciting opportunity in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering for someone with a passion for applying fundamental scientific understanding to complex industrial problems. Are you someone who is looking to push the boundaries of techniques? Use ‘green’ solvents, where the fundamental understanding of their behaviour is limited? Are you someone who enjoys digging into research questions, looking for new ways of tackling challenges? This position is for someone who is looking for a high level of challenge.
In this role, you will have the potential to make developments in how we use techniques, including Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation, and apply it to industrial problems. To support this you will need a breadth of skills. We are looking for someone that has a strong wet-chemistry background and relevant related analytical techniques (e.g. NMR, EXAFS). Ideally, experience working with both colloidal suspensions and crystallisation is a big plus. Similarly, working with non-traditional solvents including deep eutectics and ionic liquids would be valuable. This project will be probing the transition and understanding of shifts from colloidal suspensions to (primarily inorganic) crystalline species are of importance in this project, and require ingenuity in probing this, including the use Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation, ellipsometry, electrochemistry, and physical property measurements (e.g. density, viscosity, surface/interfacial tension). Additional capabilities in surface and interfacial characterisation are an important piece, including use of SEM, XRD, and Raman.
Chemical and Biological Engineering is a thriving department within one of the UKs top Faculties of
Engineering. We have a vibrant research culture spanning Materials and Products, Biological
Engineering, Sustainability, and Processes and Systems themes. The Department has 34 academics,
35 researchers, 16 technical staff, 16 professional support staff and 183 PhD students. We are
experiencing an exciting period of growth and diversification in both research and teaching with
£3.5m of investment in new facilities and £21m research income in last five years.
CBE is a major contributor to tackling the key challenges of this century - climate change, energy
poverty, affordable medicines, sustainable agriculture and water use, safety, and green
manufacturing. We boast a rich environment for learning which prepares students to be 21st century
scientists and engineers, and our disciplines span biological engineering, processes and systems,
materials and products and sustainability.
Our world class research environment is ranked number 1 by the Research Excellence Framework
2014. Our internationally renowned research is supported through funding from government and
industrial sources in the UK and the rest of the globe. We have recently introduced a new BEng/MEng
curriculum which is taught in the £85m world class Diamond Facility using a dedicated cutting edge
Pilot Plant (DiPP). The Department is the UK market leader in MSc programmes in Environmental
and Energy Engineering, Biological and Bioprocess Engineering and Process Safety with new
programmes in Brewing and Pharmaceutical Engineering planned.
The department is proud to have held an Athena Swan Silver Award continuously from 2013 and two
gold awards for Green Impact.
For further information, please visit:
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