PhD Studentship in Material Science at Imperial College London

The Imperial College London offers PhD Studentship in Material Science to highly motivated students for the academic session 2021-2022.

This three-year studentship will provide full’ home rate’ fees plus the standard maintenance stipend to students.

Summary

Scholarship Sponsor	Imperial College London
Scholarships level	PhD studentship
Award Amount	£17,285
Fellowship Period	Three years
Study area	Materials, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, Physics
Opening date	March 1, 2021
Closing date	May 2021

Project Description

Brittleness limits the design and lifetime of some polymeric, metallic, and almost all-ceramic materials in structural and functional engineering applications, from the creation of plane engine turbine blades to the newest solid-state electrolyte in batteries. This brittleness is intrinsically present in the material composition that cannot plastically deform and make them sensitive to any defect introduced during their fabrication or usage.

Metamaterial, by definition, uses architectural on to overcome the intrinsic material limitation. Among all the possible architectures we could invent, a structure with interlocking elements is predicted to be the most capable of making challenging samples from the brittle composition. The interlocking mechanism is, in theory, extremely effective at diffusing damages because it allows elements to slide but, at the same time, creates local crack-blocking compressive stresses in response to macroscopic crack-opening tensile stresses. Now the real challenge is to develop processes capable of programming interlocking in the microstructure at the micron and nanoscale independently of the composition.

The PhD candidate’s role will be to use the digital light processing (DLP) additive manufacturing technique to fabricate metamaterials with rationally design microstructure to delay and slow-down crack propagation. This PhD position is part of a 5-years ERC Starting grant awarded to make small Scale interlocking mechanism for Strong and Tough Metamaterials (STEEL) a reality.

The candidate will learn during this PhD light-based additive manufacturing technique the science of colloids, ceramic processing, sintering techniques, structural characterisations, and fracture mechanics, along with strong transferrable skills in scientific methods, problem-solving, and scientific results communications.

Supervisors: Dr Florian Bouville

Application Deadline

The deadline for applications is May 2021 

Eligibility Criteria

We seek applications from excellent, motivated and curious candidates with a minimum 2:1 (or equivalent) first degree in Materials Science, Chemistry or Applied Physics for a three year PhD studentship.

The project will be based in the Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and the Department of Materials at Imperial College London.

Award Information

This three-year studentship will provide full’ home rate’ fees plus the standard maintenance stipend to students (currently an annual tax-free stipend of £17,285).

Application Process

Applications will be processed as received. For questions or further details regarding the project, please contact Dr Florian Bouville, f.bouville@imperial.ac.uk. Closing Date: May 2021

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