Towards a Fundamental Understanding of the Deformation of Ruthenium and its alloys

About the Project

Ruthenium alloys are growing in interest due to their lower metal value and potential applications across various industries like automotive and AI. Currently there is high demand in ignition products, with future opportunities expected in data storage devices and electrical contacts to supply the demand for higher computational power for AI driven technologies. However, the limited understanding of the hot workability and oxidation behaviour of ruthenium alloys is a major barrier to their commercial product development. This aim of this project is to gain a fundamental understanding of the high temperature properties of ruthenium and it alloys, and in particular the effect of different alloying elements on high-temperature workability and the oxidation behaviour of ruthenium alloys under relevant processing conditions.

The PhD will be roughly broken down into these components:

• A literature search in the processing and formability of ruthenium and its alloys at high temperature
• Thermomechancial processing using a state-or-the-art Gleeble HDS-V40 to test the materials behaviour to stress and recrystallisation kinetics at temperatures around 1400C.
• Alloy development to understand / design how the processing window can be optimised through alloying.

As a PhD candidate, you will join the Advanced Steel Research Team, excellent and leading academics, researchers, project engineers and fellow PhD candidates. The group adopts an holistic approach to metallic materials, looking at the fundamentals and how they influence the full scale production.

For further enquiries regarding the position and application procedure, contact Dr Geoff West (g.west@warwick.ac.uk) or Dr Carl Slater (c.d.slater@warwick.ac.uk).

Funding Notes

This project is funded via the UKRI IDLA sponsored by Johnson Matthey with the University of Warwick. Under this funding scheme, UK citizens are eligible, as are UK domicile EU students. The studentship is for 3.5 years starting in October 2026 and will provide full coverage of tuition fees and an annual tax-free stipend of circa £21,805. International students who can cover the difference in tuition fees between UK home and international fees are welcome to apply.