PhD Student (m/w/d)

INM - Leibniz Institute for New Materials is located in Saarbrücken, Germany, and is an internationally leading center for materials research, a scientific partner to national and international research institutions, and a provider of research and development for companies throughout the world. The INM is an institute of the Leibniz Association and has about 250 employees. The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network “e-ChemIn: ElectroChemical Interfaces for energy conversion and storage: towards a carbon neutral society" is recruiting 15 Doctoral Candidates (DCs). The e-ChemIn network brings 12 academic and 6 industrial partners from 9 countries formed an international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral team. 15 Doctoral candidates will enjoy a multi-disciplinary and international environment with plenty of training opportunities and exchange with all labs involved in the Network. Scientific background The climate targets set by the EU with the goal of climate neutrality by 2050 require a transformation of all sectors of the economy towards the use of renewables-based electricity, calling for joined forces between EU countries in order to achieve a more resilient energy system. In the e-ChemIn we are united by the idea of applying a new paradigm in designing energy devices, which shifts the current approach of creating individual materials towards engineering electrochemically ACTIVE MATERIALS INTERFACES. Working together we will: 1) design multiple sets of electrochemical interfaces using renewable, abundant, and circular materials and optimize them for new generations of energy conversion and storage devices. Created lab-scale prototypes which outperform characteristics of current benchmarks and will be ready for further developments at high TRLs (5-9); 2) develop multimodal approaches for the characterization of interfaces operando at the nanoscale, providing unprecedented insights into interfaces in action and making the characterization of active interfaces accessible to the broader scientific community; 3) successfully establish processes for the recovery of critical raw materials from end-of-life devices and apply them at the industrial scale. JOIN OUR NETWORK! The aim of this doctoral project at INM is to develop sustainable, fluorine-lean liquid electrolytes for sodium-ion batteries and to quantify how electrolyte composition and formation protocols govern SEI/CEI formation and ion transport at solid-liquid interfaces. The Doctoral Candidate will benchmark conventional carbonate- and ether-based electrolyte systems using NaPF6 and NaFSI and will design safer fluorine-free or fluorine-lean alternatives, for example based on NaBOB, low-toxicity solvents, and functional additives. The work will be guided by green-chemistry and circularity criteria and will focus on the rational engineering of solid-liquid and solid-solid-liquid interfaces in Na-ion battery cells. A central part of the project will be the development and validation of tailored formation procedures, including current, voltage, temperature, and pre-conditioning protocols. These protocols will be correlated with initial Coulombic efficiency, impedance growth, capacity retention, and interphase stability for selected anode/cathode combinations. Multimodal analysis and advanced electrochemical diagnostics, in collaboration with DC#3 and DC#5, will deliver descriptors linking solvent, salt, additive, and conditioning choices to interphase chemistry, morphology, and transport at solid-liquid and solid-solid-liquid interfaces. Expected results (1) A ranked electrolyte and additive matrix for Na-ion cells, including sustainability and safety assessments. (2) Validated and transferable formation protocols that maximize initial efficiency and minimize impedance growth for carbonaceous anodes and selected cathodes. (3) An open standard operating procedure and data package providing standardized electrochemical and interphase descriptors for scr...