PhD-position on “printing Thermal Interface Materials”

Updated: over 2 years ago
Deadline: 15 Dec 2021

Are you fascinated to develop advanced materials for thermal fluid engineering applications? Do you have an experience on synthesis and characterization of functional materials?

We are looking for a 4- year PhD researcher to reinforce our team!

In sustainable energy applications including electrical engine driven vehicles, energy storages, or other electronic devices, increasing energy densities and down-scaling have resulted in a pressing need for efficient heat removal. Furthermore, connecting electric components to an external cooling structure requires new flexible and lightweight materials for highly effective heat transport and cooling. These materials must be eco-friendly and tuneable from nanometre to centimetre length scales.

Ideally, the thermal properties of copper are combined with the flexibility of polymer foams and then based on renewable resources. These materials hardly exist, but we believe that this is achievable by combining a novel method for printing of polymer foams (Architected Polymer Foams via Direct Bubble Writing, Advanced Materials, 2019) with extremely conductive nanotubes/platelets. The new manufacturing technology allows to print foam of variable structure (pore size, polymer fraction) in a fast and reliable manner and with a variety of monomer- or composite-resins. Here, formulation, process optimization, and application go hand-in-hand. The resulting foams can be of high value not only for flexible thermal interface materials, but also aid applications in heat storage.



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