Atomic-Scale Regulation on photocatalysts for Solar plastic upcycling

About the Project

About the project

The aim is to produce new fundamental science for sustainable production of hydrogen and value-added chemicals through a solar-driven photocatalytic approach using abundant plastic wastes and high-performance photocatalysts. A range of active, selective, robust and cheap photocatalysts will be developed for conversion processes at ambient temperatures and pressures, via an interdisciplinary approach combining atomic-level material design principles, in situ/ex situ characterisations and theoretical computations. Expected outcomes will be of high impact for solar energy use, and fuels/chemicals generation. Environmental impact will derive from consuming abundant plastic wastes; helping mitigate plastic contamination of global concern.

Supervisor: This project will be supervised by Dr. Jingrun Ran. He is currently an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow and a Senior Lecturer in School of Chemical Engineering in University of Adelaide. His research is focused on the atomic-scale design and synthesis of photocatalysts for producing energy fuels and value-added chemicals using renewable solar energy. Dr. Jingrun Ran has been recognised as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in 2020-2023, and recognised as the World’s Top 2% Scientists (released by Stanford University) in 2020-2023. He has also been recognised as a Journal of Materials Chemistry A Emerging Investigator in 2021. He has published 56 papers in well-renowed journals, including Nat. Commun., Adv. Mater., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Energy Environ. Sci., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Adv. Energy Mater., Chem. Soc. Rev., Sci. Adv. (over 17018 citations, h-index: 38 based on Google Scholar).

Facilities: The experimental instruments are mainly supplied by CMEC, new in-situ materials characterisation lab and Adelaide microscopy in UoA, which host world-class laboratories for characterisations and tests of catalysts. AC-STEM (Titan Themis, FEI) able to characterise the atomic-level compositions/structures of catalysts is available in Adelaide Microscopy of UoA. Instruments able to conduct time-resolved characterisations, e.g., Raman and DRIFTS, is currently available towards direct observation of in-situ generated chemical functionalities and reaction intermediates in reactions. Transient-state PL spectroscopy able to reveal the nanosecond-level charge dynamics in photocatalysts is accommodated in CMEC. For testing photocatalyst activity/selectivity/stability, the most advanced GC-TCD/FID, GC equipped with mass spectrometer (GC-MS), HPLC and LC equipped with mass spectrometer (LCMS) will supply key experimental results. Through combining these technologies with photocatalytic performance tests, they will be of great importance for studying the charge dynamics, identifying the in-situ chemical functionalities and in-situ reaction intermediates to reveal the insightful and overall photocatalytic mechanism. These instruments will be an ideal multidisciplinary research platform towards the design/synthesis/investigation of photocatalysts. High performance computation facilities are accessible at two levels. The local computing resource Phoenix Computational Research Service gives access to three high-performance computing clusters comprising CPU and GPU, with an excess of 68 million core-hours of computation time annually. Two national-level computing resources are also available: NCI Australia (National Computing Infrastructure).

Student Requirement: We are looking for the highly motivated candidate with master/bachelor degree in materials engineering, chemical engineering and chemistry, or a related area from reputable universities. The candidates who have related knowledge/experience/skills in photocatalysis area and related scientific publications are desirable.

How to Apply: If you are ready to seize this remarkable opportunity, please submit a comprehensive application including your CV, academic transcripts, and a brief paragraph introducing yourself, your motivation, and your interests to jingrun.ran@adelaide.edu.au

We look forward to receiving your application.