How do charge and mass transport affect the effectiveness of advanced materials for the energy transition? Using microfabrication technology, you will fabricate model systems to study fundamental aspects of electrochemical processes under nanoscale confinement and explore novel concept to enhance them. Join our multidisciplinary team spanning two departments at the University of Twente for a cutting-edge research project!
Modern energy applications, including batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells and electrolyzers, usually rely on nanoporous, disordered materials through which molecules and ions must travel. This nanoconfinement induces a plethora of couplings between charge and fluid transport, in no small part due to the inherently high surface-to-volume ratio inherent to such structures. Disentangling these effects in realistic materials represents a formidable challenge which has so far remained largely unmet.
Using the excellent microfabrication facilities of the MESA+ Institute’s Nanolab, you will construct artificial nanofluidic systems to isolate, probe and manipulate new phenomena and behaviors under confinement. This includes for example electrochemical self-induced convection, an effect recently explored in our labs; creating positive feedback between electrocatalysis and ionics to improve performance; and harnessing gas evolution to enhance the transport of a reagent to a catalyst.
Join a multidisciplinary team attempting to unravel the fundamental principles underpinning the energy transition. The BioElectronics and Physics of Complex Fluids groups have extensive experience in nanoscale electrochemistry, charge and mass transport, and nanoscale probing This project is further embedded in the Advanced Nano-Electrochemistry Institute Of The Netherlands (ANION), a major Gravitation program bringing together the expertise of the top researchers in the field nationwide.