H/F 3 years PhD position

Locations: Université Côte d'Azur, Institut de Chimie de Nice (Parc Valrose- 28 Avenue Valrose,
06108 Nice) and Centre de Mise en Forme des Matériaux, Cemef, Sophia Antipolis (https://www.cemef.minesparis.psl.eu ).

Contacts: Prof Alice Mija ([email protected] ). Dr. Patrick Navard ([email protected] )

Application: Please send your detailed CV, motivation letter, a summary of their research experience, marks of your Bachelor and Master and at least two e-mail addresses of reference persons to the contact persons (mails above).

Understanding and preventing toxic Non-Intentionally Added Substances (NIAS) formation in commonly used plastic parts

Overview of the project. Thermoplastics polymers are always compounded with additives. These additives, sometimes with interactions with impurities present in the polymer, are reacting during the compounding and processing steps used to produce a material. These unwanted chemical reactions lead to many toxic Non-Intentionally Added Substances, called NIAS. The presence of NIAS is known, but their occurrence is only measured in the limited case of food-grade products. The current published literature on NIAS is studying industrial polymer-based products, having thus no knowledge of the exact chemical composition of the additives used and of the processing conditions.

Financed by Agence Nationale de la Recherche, the present project is departing from these studies by processing three major, well-characterised polymers with their most common additives in order to understand how NIAS are formed, evaluate their toxicity, see if their occurrence can be decreased by modifying processing parameters.

Context and mission. The role of the PhD student is to (a) demonstrate how NIAS are formed, even in very classical and simple conditions, with only a few additives used, (b) show that by modifying processing conditions, NIAS amount and danger can be decreased and (c) assess the safety of recycling.

The project is highly interdisciplinary as it combines analytical and polymer chemistry, materials science and processing and toxicology. It will involve constant collaborations with another PhD student situated in Bordeaux and with the scientists of the project, specialists of other disciplines. The work is taking place in Nice and Sophia Antipolis (near Antibes).
The thesis is financed by Université Côte d'Azur via ANR. The position is open from autumn 2021 for three years.

Candidate's profile: chemist with excellent theoretical and practical knowledge in polymer science, analytical chemistry and organic chemistry; with very solid know-how on chemical characterization to be able to work at the interface organic – macromolecular chemistry; fluent in English; highly motivated, pro-active, enthusiastic and dynamic researcher with scientific creativity and with very good communication skills.; MSc thesis completed