Free Education Post-doc position in ‘Sustainable Hydrogen’ at VU University, Netherland

The VU University in Amsterdam is one of the leading institutions for higher education in Europe. It is part of international science networks and collaborates with many major universities throughout the world. The Faculty of Sciences consists of three departments, with 650 employees including researchers, lecturers, full- and part-time professors.

Summary
To reduce the risk of global warming, CO2 emissions have to be reduced. For a sustainable society it is therefore essential to find ways to reduce energy consumption, to find sustainable energy sources and to develop clean energy carriers that can easily be stored. Hydrogen based technology may hold the key to such a sustainable future. All over the world an intensive effort is taking place to understand the properties of metal hydrides and their potential use as energy storage materials. Energy storage systems are needed for mobile applications such as fuel cell driven cars. Suitable storage materials therefore have to meet stringent demands on the kinetics and thermodynamics of hydrogen ab- and de-sorption.

Within a joint project of the universities of Utrecht, Amsterdam and Leiden a collaborative effort has started to understand the effect of particle size on the hydrogen storage properties of metal hydrides. This research will involve 5 young scientists who will be collaborating within the Dutch hydrogen network and several European projects focused on the hydrogen economy. Here, we advertise for a postdoc who will be mainly situated at both the groups in Utrecht and Amsterdam.

Research project
The aim is to understand the effect of the microstructure on the storage properties of Mg-based hydrogen storage materials. Although Mg itself has a high storage capacity, its thermodynamic and kinetic properties are not suitable. We will use thin films as model systems to investigate how we the storage properties can be tuned by the microstructure and the composition of the Mg-based materials. Recently, a new combinatorial thin film technique was developed in Amsterdam to investigate the properties of promising hydrogen storage materials. ‘Hydrogenography’ exploits the optical changes on hydrogenation, and hence allows for parallel screening of hundreds of materials combinations simultaneously. This allows for a very fast and efficient analysis of both the thermodynamic properties and the hydrogenation kinetics of a large number of samples. The thin films are characterized by High Resolution-XRD, RBS, STM/AFM and IR spectroscopy. However, EXAFS will be the major technique used by the postdoc to analyse the details of the microstructure. So far we have found that the Mg-based system shows a high propensity to form coherently mixed phases. In this project the aim is to identify the effect of the nature of the coherency on the storage properties.

Requirements
We are looking for scientist with a PhD in physics or chemistry with a background in condensed matter physics and an interest in materials sciences. Enthusiasm and team spirit are a must.

Appointment
The appointment will be for two years. You will be located at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, which is at 50 minutes distance to Utrecht University where you will have frequent discussions also. You can visit our website www.vu.nl/vacatures for a review of working conditions at the VU.

Salary
The salary is determined according to the collective rules (CAO) of the Dutch universities. Salary scale 10 is applicable (minimum € 2.330,- and maximum € 3.678,-) based on a full-time employment.

Information and application
For more specific information, please contact Dr. P. de Jongh (Utrecht University, EXAFS) phone +31 (30) 2536766, e-mail: P.E.deJongh@uu.nl, or Dr. B. Dam (Thin film preparation and characterisation), phone +31 (20) 59 87917, e-mail: b.dam@few.vu.nl.

Applications including a detailed CV with one or two references should be sent before April 14th, 2008 to the VU University, Faculty of Sciences - Department P&O, attn. Dr. B. Dam, De Boelelaan 1083-A, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands, or by e-mail: few-vacatures@few.vu.nl. The vacancy number should be mentioned in the e-mail header or at the upper left corner of the letter and envelope.

http://www.vu.nl/images_upload/60413F7F-0D83-F6AD-1E2D525BE3964426.pdf