JOB DESCRIPTION

Hydrogen is projected to be a major energy carrier in the future and one of its projected uses is to power aircraft. Unfortunately, the use of hydrogen comes with a safety hazard as mixtures of hydrogen and air are, under certain conditions, flammable or even explosive. On top of that, even a tiny leakage of hydrogen, being a severe greenhouse gas, can contribute significantly to global warming. While hydrogen sensors exist nowadays, these sensors are not suited for all applications.
Optical hydrogen sensors feature distinct advantages with respect to present-day technology. They can be made small, cheap and are intrinsically safe. The heart of these sensors is a metal hydride sensing layer of about 10 nm providing the optical signal. Upon exposure to hydrogen, the metal hydride will absorb hydrogen, which changes it’s optical properties. By measuring e.g. the transmission of the light, the hydrogen concentration can then be determined.
While optical hydrogen sensing materials have proven conceptually to work under ideal conditions (i.e. in chemically inert environments), the presence of humidity or gasses such as NOx and CO. The goal of this project is synthesize, characterize and functionally test polymer coatings that would protect the hydrogen sensor to this environment and allow it to operate in challenging environments as within a fuel cell or electrolyzer. This would allow to monitor the hydrogen concentration real time inside these devices, allowing performance operation, predictive maintenance and therefor lower operating costs and higher efficiency.
The coating will be synthesized using magnetron sputtering, and developing the recipes for that will constitute a major part of the project. Then, the coating will be tested under conditions relevant to the application to determine their performance. Besides developing the polymer coating, research will also focus on fundamental understanding of the material properties of the coating and the mechanism(s) through which it provides protection. This project will be a true team effort, involving Research technicians, Scientific staff, and Expert advice from companies relevant to the research.
The supervision of the project will be carried out by Lars Bannenberg (responsible supervisor) and Antonia Denkova. Questions can be addressed to Lars Bannenberg and more information can be found on hydrogensensing.nl.

Tasks:

• Synthesize hydrogen sensing materials and protective (polymer) coatings using physical vapor deposition (magnetron sputtering).
• Perform advanced material characterization with techniques such as Neutron and X-ray reflectometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction.
• Characterization of optical performance of the hydrogen sensing materials when exposed to hydrogen containing environments.
• Write academic papers and deliver presentations and updates in which you communicate your experimental.
• Co-supervise bachelor and master student thesis projects.
• Contribute to the teaching activities of the group within the bachelor/master programs of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. This could be helping/coordinating the exercise lectures, practical assignments etc. being maximum 10% of your time.

The Storage of Electrochemical Energy group of the Radiation Science and Technology department focusses on fundamental processes in electroceramics and next-generation batteries using experimental probes as neutron and X-ray scattering, as well as solid state NMR and computational approaches including density functional theory calculations. The direct access to these facilities and collaborative atmosphere represents a stimulating environment for research and development.
See https://www.tudelft.nl/en/faculty-of-applied-sciences/about-faculty/departments/radiation-science-technology/research/research-groups/storage-of-electrochemical-energy

JOB REQUIREMENTS

You would be our ideal candidate if you are/have:

• Master in (applied) chemistry, physics, material science or a related subject.
• Good command of the English language in both speaking and writing. Speaking Dutch or willingness to learn is a pre.
• Able to work both in a team as well as individually.
• Demonstrated excellent experimental and analytical skills
• Basic command of programming (Python) or willing to learn that is a pre.
• Knowledge of thin film deposition or characterization techniques is a pre.
• Good communication skills

• Synthesize hydrogen sensing materials and protective (polymer) coatings using physical vapor deposition (magnetron sputtering).
• Perform advanced material characterization with techniques such as Neutron and X-ray reflectometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction.
• Characterization of optical performance of the hydrogen sensing materials when exposed to hydrogen containing environments.
• Write academic papers and deliver presentations and updates in which you communicate your experimental.
• Co-supervise bachelor and master student thesis projects.
• Contribute to the teaching activities of the group within the bachelor/master programs of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. This could be helping/coordinating the exercise lectures, practical assignments etc. being maximum 10% of your time