PhD in Chemistry

Applications are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Natural Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Chemistry programme. The position is available from November 2022 or later.

Title:

Advancing Crystal Engineering using Ionic Liquids (ACE)

Research area and project description:

As part of a Novo Nordisk Fonden RECRUIT grant [1], a large research environment in advanced crystal engineering is establishing with the aim to explore task-specific ionic liquids (room temperature molten salts) for deliberately designed crystallization (assembly-by-design) of organic solids such as medical drugs, food additives, agrochemicals, and others.

With the challenges of a growing and aging society, the need to improve access to medical drugs, agrochemicals, and food additives is more pressing. Many of these materials occur in different solid assemblies (forms/polymorphs), and each form has different properties. A prominent example is chocolate, or rather cocoa butter.[2,3] To date six different forms are known, of which only one (not the most stable form) gives the good chocolate taste and sensation. Sophisticated crystallization schemes (tempering) must be applied. The current project aims to revolutionize crystallization by using task-specific ionic liquids as crystallization media to allow for simple and robust access to thermodynamically unstable solid forms. Through careful engineering and supramolecular interactions, it may be even possible to get new forms!

The goal of this PhD project is to investigate ionic liquids as crystallization media for a wide set of materials. Tasks will include: 1) developing crystallization techniques and strategies, 2) monitoring and analysing the crystallization process and the solid by means of X-ray and neutron diffraction, and electron crystallography, and 3) ultimately identifying those parameters that are key to the formation of a specific solid assembly. The project will take advantage of the latest possibilities offered by large-scale facilities for neutron and synchrotron X-ray scattering as well as new and custom-made equipment at the Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University.

The PhD candidate will manage a wide range of state-of-the-art synthesis and characterization techniques with emphasis on structure analysis with diffraction methods and become an expert in materials structure and properties.

For more background please visit: mudring.org

References:

1. https://nat.au.dk/en/about-the-faculty/news/show/artikel/the-endless-possibilities-of-impossible-salt  

2. http://www.compoundchem.com/2014/04/19/the-polymorphs-of-chocolate

3. https://www.chemistryviews.org/details/ezine/808827/Chocolate__The_Noblest_Polymorphism_II/