Fully Funded PhD Scholarship in Chemical Sciences from the University of Liverpool, UK

The University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom is offering a Ph.D. Scholarship in Chemical Sciences titled "Multi-scale simulation study for high entropy materials as electrode" This project is a part of a 4-year dual Ph.D. program between National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Taiwan and the University of Liverpool in England. It is planned that students will spend 2 years at NTHU, followed by 12 months at the University of Liverpool before returning to NTHU for the remainder of the degree.

About the project:

This project is part of a 4-year Dual Ph.D. degree program between the National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan) and the University of Liverpool (England). As part of the NTHU-UoL Dual Ph.D. Award students are in the unique position of being able to gain 2 Ph.D. awards at the end of their degree from two internationally recognized world-leading Universities. As well as benefiting from the rich cultural experience, students can draw on large-scale national facilities of both countries and create a worldwide network of contacts across two continents. The latest set of projects targeted goal #11 from the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

High entropy materials are first proposed in 2004, receiving much interest from many materials field and application. In 2018 and 2019, Sarkar’s group and Qiu’s group both use high entropy oxide (HEO) (Mg Co Ni Cu Zn) O as anode materials of lithium-ion battery (LIB). They found that the materials are conversion-type anodes. High entropy materials are first proposed in 2004, receiving much interest from many materials field and application. In 2018 and 2019, Sarkar’s group and Qiu’s group both use high entropy oxide (HEO) (Mg Co Ni Cu Zn) O as anode materials of lithium-ion battery (LIB). They found that the materials are conversion-type anodes. Conversion-type anodes can demonstrate a very high specific capacity, but usually also show a low cycle life relative to commercialized intercalation-type anodes such as graphite. This drawback makes conversion-type anodes hard to commercialize. However, the most prominent performance of (Mg Co Ni Cu Zn) O anodes is extremely high cyclic stability during the charge/discharge process. The specific capacity of the HEO anode is ~600 mAh/g. Comparing with the commercialized graphite anode (specific capacity ~372 mAh/g), it believes that HEOs may be potential candidates as an anode in a next-generation lithium-ion battery. In this project, it was planned to use a multi-scale materials simulation method to calculate and determine the phase evolution mechanism of HEO. Providing some alternative aspects can make researchers better understand the internal mechanism of the HEO electrode. And based on this understanding, we may optimize the performance of HEO anode or even re-design new kinds of HEO anode with excellent performance.

Funding:

Both the University of Liverpool and NTHU have agreed to waive the tuition fees for the duration of the project and the stipend of TWD 11,000/month will be provided as a contribution to living costs (the equivalent of £280 per month when in Liverpool).

About the University of Liverpool:

The University of Liverpool is a public university based in the city of Liverpool, England. Founded as a college in 1881, it gained its royal charter in 1903 with the ability to award degrees and is also known to be one of the six original 'redbrick' civic universities.

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