PhD in Chemistry: Understanding heterogeneous catalysis for CO2 utilisation

Global warming is a pressing threat to the sustainability of our world. There is a need to reduce the use of fossil fuels and to capture CO2, ideally using it as a chemical feedstock.

The Cardiff Catalysis Institute has partnered with the Max Planck Society through the MaxNet project to study heterogeneous catalytic routes to CO2 utilisation.

This PhD will be integrated with these projects to study the surface catalysed reactions using computational chemistry to provide fundamental understanding and analytical chemistry to characterise and test catalytic materials. By combining the experimental and theoretical data we will arrive at new insights that will so suggest new approaches to help optimise the catalytic systems.

The successful candidate will join the CCI/MaxNet team with opportunities to interact with colleagues both in Cardiff and Germany.

Academic criteria

Candidates should hold or expect to gain a first class degree or a good 2.1 and/or an appropriate Master’s level qualification (or their equivalent).

Applicants whose first language is not English will be required to demonstrate proficiency in the English language (IELTS 6.5 or equivalent)


Supervisor - Dr David Willock https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/38536-willock-david

How to Apply

Application deadline - 1st March 2020. Early application is advised as we reserve the right to close this advert early should sufficient applications be received.

Applicants should apply to the Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry with a start date of April 2020: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research/programmes/programme/chemistry
In the research proposal section of your application, please specify the project title and supervisors of this project and copy the project description in the text box provided. In the funding section, please select ’I will be applying for a scholarship/grant’ and specify that you are applying for advertised funding from PhD in Chemistry: Understanding heterogeneous catalysis for CO2 utilisation.