Nano Materials for Applications in Energy Recovery

There is an opportunity to pursue a PhD in solid-state materials chemistry. The project will involve the synthesis of novel nano-scale materials for applications in thermoelectric energy harvesting. The reduced length scale offers a means of improving performance by reducing the thermal conductivity and increasing the Seebeck coefficient. Materials will be synthesised using both top-down mechanochemical approaches and bottom-up advanced synthesis techniques, including solvothermal methods. The resulting nano materials will be characterised in-house using a combination of powder X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. Electron and thermal transport properties will be measured using equipment within the group. Complementary structural and spectroscopic measurements will be made at the ISIS neutron facility and Diamond Light Source on the Harwell campus. The materials to be investigated will be intermetallics which show promising thermoelectric properties capable of generating electrical energy from the waste heat in a vehicle exhaust stream. This project will form part of a wide ranging program of work to design new materials for thermoelectric energy recovery for applications over a wide range of temperatures.
Informal enquiries can be made to Prof. Anthony Powell (a.v.powell@reading.ac.uk)
Please see http://www.reading.ac.uk/chemistry/about/staff/a-v-powell.aspx for more information.