Designing electrolyte membrane for blue energy conversion

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Designing electrolyte membrane for blue energy conversion. The CellOsmo ANR project aims at developing a new generation of membranes to harvest osmotic energy from salinity gradients existing between fresh and salty waters (ocean, brine, and wastewater). Such energy is renewable, non-intermittent and the global reachable power is estimated to 1 TW (in comparison the 2020 hydroelectricity power only reached 0.02 TW).1 Such energy can be converted into electricity by reverse electrodialysis (RED) which relies on stacks of cation and anion exchange membranes to transport ions from salty to fresh water. The power generated by RED depends on the cell design, the salt gradient and the membrane properties.

The candidate will develop structural characterization methodologies of selected membranes synthesized by the partners of the ANR project including the evaluation of the nanoconfinement lengthscale by SAXS/SANS, of the grafted polyelectrolyte conformation by SANS, and of the swollen nanochannel morphology by electron and atomic force microscopy (SEM, TEM, AFM).

The CellOsmo project will provide key insights related to two main scientific questions:

• How to play with the copolymer macromolecular architecture, grafting onto conditions, formulation and process to tune the ion concentration and distribution, and the nanochannel size within a nanocellulose single ion electrolyte membrane?
• How ionic transport properties can be modulated through the electrolyte membrane architecture, and subsequently impact blue energy conversion efficiency?

The candidate will benefit from both CEA/IRIG/SyMMES and Cermav laboratories where he will have access to nanocharacterization platforms (in particular SAXS/WAXS at SyMMES) and AFM, SEM and TEM at CERMAV). This project will involve experiements inlarge scale facilities (ILL, ESRF). CELLOSMO is an PRCE ANR project involving IMP (Lyon, synthesis), Cermav (Grenoble, membrane functionalization, AFM, SEM), SyMMES (Grenoble, morphology characterization) and the Sweetch company (Rennes, membrane performances).

Where to apply

Website: https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/UMR5819-RACMAU-002/Default.aspx

Requirements

• Research Field: Chemistry — Education Level: PhD or equivalent
• Research Field: Physics — Education Level: PhD or equivalent
• Research Field: Physics — Education Level: PhD or equivalent
• Languages: FRENCH — Level: Basic
• Research Field: Chemistry — Years of Research Experience: 1 - 4
• Research Field: Physics » Chemical physics — Years of Research Experience: 1 - 4
• Research Field: Physics » Biophysics — Years of Research Experience: 1 - 4

Additional Information

Eligibility criteria

• PhD in Material Science, Physics or Chemistry.
• Proven hands-on experience with SAXS/SANS techniques associated with programming skills (Pyhton)
• Strong experimental skills would be a plus: spectroscopy, microscopy, electrochemistry
• Knowledge on polymers, nanostructured materials would be a strong asset
• Ability to work effectively in a multi-partner environment
• Excellent communication skills in English (written and oral), French would be a plus.

Website for additional job details: https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/UMR5819-RACMAU-002/Default.aspx

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available: 1

Company/Institute: Systèmes moléculaires et nano matériaux pour l'énergie et la santé

Country: France

City: GRENOBLE

Contact

City: GRENOBLE