Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage | MECS

AIM: At the Department of Chemical Engineering the MECS group focuses on the development of new materials for sustainable energy applications. Taking a materials science approach, we explore the relation between synthesis, structure and physical properties of thin films and nano-structures. Our group is fully committed to the e-Refinery initiative, a cross-faculty program to foster the research and development of processes for the electro-conversion of air and water into base chemicals. Our group contributes to this initiative by developing new materials and labscale devices.

EXPERTISE: We seek to maintain a unique position in developing and employing a wide range of nano-particle and thin film preparation techniques such as Sputter Deposition, Atomic Layer Deposition, Pulsed Laser Deposition and Spray Pyrolysis. Characterization includes Raman spectroscopy, Ellipsometry, in-situ UV/VIS spectroscopy, Scanning Probe characterization tools and an electrochemistry lab including a solar simulator.

TEAM: The MECS team consists of the principle investigators Tom Burdyny, Wilson Smith, Fokko Mulder, em.prof. Hans Geerlings and em.prof. Bernard Dam including technical support by Joost Middelkoop, Herman Schreuders and Bart Boshuizen, and admin support by Roos Roeling. The MECS team is complemented by em.prof. Andreas Schmidt-Ott.

PhD VACANCIES: We often have fully funded 4-year projects for interested PhD students, and fully funded 1-3 year projects for postdocs. In the Dutch academic system, as a prospective PhD student you do not apply for a graduate school, but you directly apply for a thesis work. Generally speaking, such a thesis work is defined by a faculty member and funded for the full 4 years providing a good salary (~25.000-30.000 Euro's per annum) for the PhD student. The PhD student spends 80% of his her time on his/her thesis research, 10% on teaching, and 10% on taking graduate level courses. Check the individual PI pages for vacancies

BACHELOR/MASTER students may find descriptions of  end-projects on the individual PI pages. For prospective master students we recommend the following courses: Inorganic Materials (CH3542), Functional Materials (CH3531), Electrochemistry for Renewable Energy 1,2 (CH3512, CH3522), Hydrogen Technology (SET3085) en Energy storage in batteries (CH3222)

SUMMER INTERNS: We do not have openings for summer internships.

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