PhD Studentship - Development of Advanced Scintillation Materials for Next Generation Radiation Dosimetry and Health Monitoring

Research theme: Applied Chemistry, Materials Science, Synthetic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry

The successful applicant will automatically receive the University of Manchester departmental funding and support. This funding will cover tuition fees and a tax free stipend based on the UKRI funding level (£18,622 in 2023/24).

Ionising radiation is a part and parcel of nuclear energy production, medical radiotherapy and radiography, space exploration and security screening. The detection of ionising radiation by the scintillation of light is one of the oldest and useful techniques on record. Various inorganic [Angew. Chem.Int. Ed. 2023,62, e202304638] and organic [Nature Photonics, 2021, 15, 187] materials are particularly appealing, since the chemical structure and composition of scintillator can be fine-tuned to match the radiation type of interest and its energy characteristics to match the criteria required for a particular application. However, new materials and innovations are highly required to increase the dosimetry performance (sensitivity, light output, manufacturing process) and advance health monitoring applications that require exposure to the high energy photons (over 40 keV, Sci. Rep., 2020 10, 20097).

Applications are sought for a PhD studentship: “Development of advanced scintillation materials for next generation radiation dosimetry and health monitoring” with a particular focus on the discovery of the new light-emitting materials and their use in the next generation dosimetry. This is a truly interdisciplinary collaboration PhD project. It will be supervised by the team of Manchester academics in (a) synthesis and characterisation of advanced luminophores by Dr Alexander Romanov (Department of Chemistry) and (b) radiation detection by Dr Aliaksandr Baidak (Dalton Cumbrian Facility). The PhD candidate will explore the emerging carbene-metal-amide (CMA) scintillation materials [Science, 2017, 356, 159; Nature Commun., 2020, 11, 1758] and how CMA’s interact with X- and gamma-rays. The project is part of a comprehensive programme exploring a new family of strongly photo-emissive coinage metal complexes based on carbene-metal-amide (CMA) structures. The successful applicant will use the CMA as versatile molecular platform to design advanced scintillation materials. All materials will be irradiated at Dalton Cumbrian Facility with X- and gamma-rays to establish fundamental structure-property correlations between the molecular design and radioluminescence response and select the best candidates for the applications in dosimetry. The position would suit an ambitious, highly motivated and practical researcher with some experience in synthetic inorganic chemistry and/or organic materials chemistry. There will also be the opportunity to develop complementary skills in the photophysical characterisation of the materials, dosimetry and therefore an additional interest in materials science would be desirable.

Applicants are expected to hold, or about to obtain a first-class degree (2:1 or above) in Chemistry while some experience in inorganic, organic or materials chemistry is desirable.

Please contact the supervisors before you apply: Dr. Alexander Romanov ([email protected] ) and Dr. Baidak - [email protected]