Are you looking to do a PhD project and are you interested in catalysis, spectroscopy, mechano-chemistry, or polymer science to develop a sustainable pathway for plastic waste recycling through mechano-catalytic conversion? Join us in shaping a greener future!

Your job
Decades of polymer engineering have led to various plastic materials with a variety of tuneable properties and applications. Considerably less effort has gone into strategies on how to deal with the waste created. Only 13.5% of plastics made in the EU consist of recycling content, mainly because current recycling technology leads to a lower quality material. Chemical recycling is hailed as the solution but still has to take off. Join us in advancing chemical recycling methods and make a meaningful impact on plastic waste management!

Use your experience in catalysis, polymer science and/or mechano-chemistry to develop new recycling technologies for plastics using ball milling. You will enter a relatively unexplored field of chemistry together with an expanding team of PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers.

The core objective of this project is to pioneer the conversion of polyolefins into essential chemical building blocks like monomers. By unravelling the intricate interplay between mechanical forces, catalysis, and polymer chain cleavage, you will gain valuable insights into the fundamental mechanisms shaping the future of recycling technology. You will develop operando spectroscopic techniques to track the bond cleavage during ball milling. Embrace the array of cutting-edge spectroscopic and analytic techniques (e.g., EPR, SEC, Raman, IR and TGA) within the Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis (ICC) section, becoming an expert in mechano-catalytic depolymerisation. As part of this project, you will excel in a top chemistry group with an extensive variety of state-of-the-art equipment.

Your main tasks include:

• developing the fundamental relationship of reaction rate depending on ball milling parameters;
• overcoming the challenge of conducting spectroscopic measurements in the ball mill;
• developing novel surface activated mechano-catalysts;
• understanding the fundamental mechanism of surface-activated mechano-catalysis for polymer chain cleavage.

We are looking for 2 collaborative and enthusiastic PhD candidates who meet several or all of the following criteria:

• an MSc degree in chemistry or chemical engineering;
• motivation to contribute to solving the plastic waste issue;
• a strong interest in the fields of heterogeneous catalysis, spectroscopy, mechano-chemistry, and/or polymer chemistry;
• a creative team player with good English communication skills;
• hands-on experience in using or building chemical setups in the lab environment;
• the ability to work independently in a multidisciplinary environment.

We offer:

• a position for four years;
• a fulltime working week and a gross monthly salary between €2,872 and €3,670 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale P under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.

In addition to the terms of employment laid down in the CAO NU, Utrecht University has a number of schemes and facilities of its own for employees. This includes schemes facilitating professional development, leave schemes and schemes for sports and cultural activities, as well as discounts on software and other IT products. We also offer access to additional employee benefits through our Terms of Employment Options Model. In this way, we encourage our employees to continue to invest in their growth. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University.

Universiteit Utrecht

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major strategic themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Pathways to Sustainability. Sharing science, shaping tomorrow.

Working at the Faculty of Science means bringing together inspiring people across disciplines and with a variety of perspectives and backgrounds. The Faculty has six departments: Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Information & Computing Sciences, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Together, we work on excellent research and inspiring education. We do so, driven by curiosity and supported by outstanding infrastructure. Visit us on LinkedIn and discover how you can become part of our community.

The department of Chemistry is renowned as a world class centre of excellence and innovation in both research and education, fully resourced and equipped with state-of-the-art technological platforms. Research and education form an integrated whole and all our researchers are involved in teaching alongside their research programmes and commitments. Vice versa, all our students are involved in cutting-edge research right from the very beginning. Our undergraduate students are enrolled in a general Chemistry BSc programme or an interdepartmental programme on Molecular and Biophysical Life Sciences, which prepare them for MSc programmes like those on Nanomaterials Science or Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences at UU. Research in our department develops around two strategic themes; Life Science is studied in the Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research and Sustainability in the Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science.

For more information, please contact Ina Vollmer at i.vollmer@uu.nl.

Do you have a question about the application procedure? Please send an email to science.recruitment@uu.nl.

Our team, led by Dr Ina Vollmer, is focussed on chemical conversion of polyolefins to valuable chemical building blocks, particularly using mechano-chemistry. Our aim is to develop new technologies for chemical recycling and to contribute to solving an important societal issue of our time, while performing excellent, high impact research. We are part of the Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis section of the Chemistry department and the newly founded Institute for Circular and Sustainable Chemistry.