Deuteration Chemist Summer Placement

at  Science and Technology Facilities Council STFC

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL

Salary: £22,096
Hours: Full time
Contract Type: Fixed Term
Location: Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Harwell, Oxfordshire
Deuteration is an isotopic contrast technique, critical to neutron scattering. It enables complex hydrogen containing chemical and biochemical structures to be investigated and structural and chemical properties to be determined that would otherwise remain hidden. Although some deuterium-containing molecules are commercially available in gram quantities (for instance those commonly used as NMR solvents), most systems of interest to the user community are prohibitively expensive or are not commercially available at all. The Deuteration Facility provides custom synthesis of target isotopic materials for the ISIS and ILL user communities in order to enable their experimental programmes.

With the world continually searching for advances in new and existing clean energy sources the role of battery storage technology has become increasingly important.
In line with the current ISIS Science strategy, we are seeing an increasing number of battery material experiments being carried out at ISIS, this has therefore also led to a requirement for deuterated compounds that will enhance the results. In collaboration with the Disordered Materials, Crystallography and Molecular Spectroscopy Science groups we have identified several key solvents that would significantly improve the output from future battery related experiments.
An example of this is methyl ethyl carbonate, that has previously been requested for neutron experiments. However, the facility was unable to provide this due to the complex nature of the synthesis and purification required to produce sufficient material.
This project would initially look at producing this material and other compounds used as battery electrolytes or solvents in collaboration with the appropriate science groups. Further stages of the project would include scaling up the synthesis to help support a larger number of experiments.
Provision of these materials would enable us to support new and current users and significantly improve the scientific output from future experiments within the clean energy sector.