PhD computational physical chemistry: modeling air-water interface

We seek to hire a PhD candidate to computationally investigate fundamental physical and chemical processes which occur due to application of low temperature plasmas to water.

Research Summary

In physics, 'plasma' is a special excited gas, sometimes named 'the fourth state of matter', which is generated by supplying sufficient energy to the gas. Low temperature atmospheric pressure plasmas are specific types of plasmas which are typically generated by applying electromagnetic fields to matter, and they are therefore not in thermodynamic equilibrium. In many cases, average electron energy is significantly higher than the energy of heavy particles. This allows plasma sources to produce a chemically rich environment very close to room temperature; a condition which enables the delivery of reactive species in a non-destructive and beneficial way to different surfaces, even to extremely heat sensitive ones, such as organic tissues. This is where, the new field of 'plasma medicine' emerges which investigates the application of plasmas to biological targets for sterilization, wound healing, blood coagulation, drug delivery, cancer treatment, contamination control, food preservation, etc.

The PhD candidate is expected to employ methods such as Density Functional Theory (DFT), and molecular dynamics (MD) to model air-water interface with the specific application of plasma medicine in mind.

The research will be carried out at the Elementary Processes in Gas Discharges (EPG ) group at the Applied Physics Department of the Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands) and is in collaboration with Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS).

In addition to research, you will also contribute to education within the department of Applied Physics. Apart from supervising BSc and MSc students in their research projects, other assistance in education, e.g., in bachelor courses, is usually limited to around 5% of your contract time.

Interactions

In this project you will interact with members of ICMS Immuno-engineering Program at TU/e. In addition, you have the opportunity to participate with national and international schools, workshops and conferences.