4 Year GTA - Rare Earth Materials for Reprocessing and Spintronics

About the Project

Open to UK applicants only

The School of Chemistry has fully-funded Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) studentships available for UK applicants, starting in September 2026.

The opportunities allow successful candidates to pursue their passion for research in the chemical sciences, alongside developing their skills as chemistry lecturers and educators of the future. This includes working toward gaining recognition as an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

The GTA involves laboratory demonstrating and other teaching responsibilities in term time, with approximately 80% of your time dedicated to research across the calendar year. These are 4-year positions that include an annual stipend and salary package, full UK tuition fees, and a research and training grant.

Project highlights

• Activation of strategic small molecules (CO, CO2, H2, N2)
• Rare earth reprocessing
• Applications in molecular magnetism and spintronics

Description

Background. Small molecule activation (SMA) is a pillar of the chemical industry. The activation and transformation of CO, CO2, H2 and N2 is vital for the industrial production of numerous commodity chemicals that sustain modern society (global market worth >$600 billion). These transformations classically require expensive, toxic and scarce metals, thus posing significant challenges towards the long-term sustainability of chemical manufacturing. To tackle these challenges, other approaches must be investigated, including the employment of earth-abundant and non-toxic metals – such as rare earth metals. Our research group studies the fundamental chemistry of rare earth metals and their application in new chemical processes and reprocessing strategies. Most rare earth metals have very low toxicity and remarkable reactivity, which has already led to numerous applications in SMA.

Aims. As part of this project, we will develop new rare earth materials by using mechanochemical methods and ligand design to reprocesses mixed rare earths. In preliminary work, we have already shown that complexes with specific molecular design can deliver facile activation of CO2 and CS2, leading to the transformation of these basic feedstocks into more complex organic molecules. We have also demonstrated that it is possible to use SMA to form multimetallic rare earth clusters, which are of great interest for their potential applications in molecular magnetism. In this project we will build on these exciting preliminary results and produce a large family on new rare earth materials and target new reprocessing strategies, strategic chemical transformations and the production of multimetallic clusters with interesting magnetic properties.

Methodology. Compounds in this project will be obtained using state-of-the-art anaerobic methods (e.g. glovebox, Schlenk line) and solvent-free mechanochemical synthesis, paired with a suite of characterisation techniques (multinuclear NMR, X-ray diffraction, UV-vis-NIR spectroscopy, photoluminescence). Additionally, this work will be complemented by comprehensive magnetic studies (EPR and SQUID) to evaluate potential applications of the new materials in molecular magnetism.

Enquiries to Fabrizio Ortu - fabrizio.ortu@leicester.ac.uk

Application enquiries to Dr Richard Doveston r.g.doveston@leicester.ac.uk(Postgraduate Admissions tutor for the School of Chemistry)

To apply please refer to the application advice and use the application link at https://le.ac.uk/study/research-degrees/funded-opportunities/chemistry-gta

Start 21 September 2026

Funding Notes

GTA Studentships provide funding for 4 years to include:

• Tuition fees at UK rates
• A combined teaching and stipend payment (for 2026/7 this will be £21,805 per year, paid in monthly instalments)
• Research training support grant (RTSG)