As society moves towards the Circular Economy, more sustainable use of materials is becoming increasingly important. Even in environments that can be highly destructive, such as those encountered in energy generation and chemical processing, infrastructure components are expected to have substantially longer operational lifespans. To this end, effort is required to develop next generation material systems solutions, including innovative operando chemical treatments. The PhD project will address this topic, focusing on surface actives for corrosion inhibition of metallic substrates. More specifically, mechanistic details of corrosion inhibitor functionality in acidic solutions will be pursued, as well as exploring development of high-throughput approaches for corrosion inhibitor selection.
The project will significantly advance ongoing corrosion inhibitor research at Manchester, that has already provided unique nanoscale insight into model solution/substrate systems, e.g., elucidation of the charge states of adsorbed inhibitors. Building on this success, systems will be studied that more closely mimic those encountered in industry, where metallic components are often immersed in solutions containing a wide range of components, including additives such as emulsifiers, biocides, and scale inhibitors. The challenge will be to acquire atomic scale understanding from complex solution/substrate combinations that are more pertinent to real-world engineering scenarios. Besides revealing key structure-performance relationships, results will be employed to direct development of alternative corrosion inhibitor selection schemes.
Academic background of candidates
Applicants should have or expect to achieve at least a 2.1 honours degree in Materials Science, Chemistry or related subject.
At the University of Manchester, we pride ourselves on our commitment to fairness, inclusion and respect in everything we do. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and identities and encourage you to bring your whole self to work and study. We will ensure that your application is given full consideration without regard to your race, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, nationality, disability, age, marital or pregnancy status, or socioeconomic background. All PhD places will be awarded on the basis of merit.
To apply please follow the link below:
https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/admissions/how-to-apply/
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