Probing surface structure and interactions of ionic liquids

A great opportunity to study for a fully funded PhD while gaining valuable teaching experience.

6 years total duration, 0.5 FTE studying, 0.5 FTE teaching, compensated at currently £24983 p.a. pro-rata, therefore £12491
A student loan of up to £25000 in total over the six years may also be available to support this PhD (see Student Loans Company website for details).

Ionic liquids (ILs) consist of ions held together by a strong Coulomb potential and can remain liquid up to around 400 K. The combination of cations and anions can be tuned to create ILs with desired properties. ILs have very low vapour pressures and as a result can be studied in ultra-high vacuum conditions. This has opened up an exciting new avenue of research for liquid surface science. ILs are being investigated for applications such as gas capture and separation, electrolyte in batteries and photovoltaic devices, catalysis, lubrication and nanoparticle growth. There has been an explosion of research into ILs over the last few years but there is very little research into the fundamental interactions of ILs at surfaces, which is important to many of their applications.
In this project you will investigate the structure and interactions of ILs at surfaces and interfaces. You will investigate how ILs interact with gas molecules with a view towards gas capture applications and you will study the interaction of ILs with oxide surfaces (such as ZnO and TiO2) with a view towards photovoltaic and catalysis applications.
You will use techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy and diffraction techniques primarily at synchrotron facilities around Europe, to determine the structure, bonding and charge dynamics at the interfaces. For the study of gas capture in ILs you will carry out experiments at facilities which allow photoelectron spectroscopy measurements to be taken at near-ambient pressures (~10 mbar). Near-ambient pressure photoelectron experiments are a very recent development in surface science and for this project they will create a more realistic environment where the IL is in dynamic equilibrium with the surrounding gas. This fundamental understanding of IL surfaces and interfaces is vital to improving their efficiency in technological applications.

The Jeremiah Horrocks institute is based in Preston as part of the University of Central Lancashire. Preston has a proud history of manufacturing and production including the cotton mills of the 1800s and the production of aircraft in the early 1960s. Preston was granted City Status by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2002.

Jeremiah Horrocks, from whom the institute gains its name, was an English astronomer. Born in Liverpool (1618 – 1641), he was the first person to demonstrate that the Moon orbits the Earth in an elliptical orbit. More notably, he predicted and was the only person to observe the transit of Venus of 1639.

The University of Central Lancashire has developed and evolved over time to become the fifth largest university in the UK. Founded in 1828 as the Institution for the Diffusion of Knowledge by Joseph Livesey’s Temperance Society. In 1886 the institute was expanded under the endowment of a local lawyer, Edmund Robert Harris (1804-1877). The institute was renamed to the Harris Institute and expanded to take on several new buildings. The institute was renamed in 1932 as the Harris Art College and in 1952 was renamed again to become the Harris College. In 1973, the College was renamed to become Preston Polytechnic and then later Lancashire Polytechnic in 1984. In 1992, the full university status was awarded and the University of Central Lancashire came into existence.

The Jeremiah Horrocks Institute was established in 1993 as the Centre for Astrophysics. Renamed in 2004 as the Jeremiah Horrocks Institute (JHI) for Astrophysics and Super-Computing, the JHI grew in 2012 to become the Jeremiah Horrocks Institute for Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy. Already extremely well-regarded in astronomy and astrophysics research, the Institute has been investing in experimental physics since 2013 and now has a world-leading portfolio in nanophysics, magnetic materials and magnetic modelling, ionic liquids, strongly correlated electron systems and several other areas.