Internships

Possibilities for research internships:
Within the department there are always possibilities for students to participate in one of the research projects discussed in the research section, both as a bachelor or master internship. The research has a strong interdisciplinary character; physical tools are used to study chemical relevant materials and processes. Depending on the students’ background it is possible to put more emphasis on theory or experiment. Furthermore, one can decide to focus more on the chemical or physical aspects of the research.
A typical internship at the Magnetic Resonance Research Center is structurised as follows: the student starts by compiling and reading literature relevant to the project, meanwhile the student is acquainted with the NMR hardware by his/her supervisor and learns how to set up different NMR experiments. Depending on the project it might be necessary to focus more on sample preparation, hardware modification, signal processing, modelling or theoretical aspects. At the end of the internship a report is written by the student and he/she will give a presentation about the project.


Obligatory courses: Applied Magnetic Resonance
Recommended course: Atom and Molecular Spectroscopy, Molecular quantummechanics, Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry
Contact: if you are interested in one of our projects or if you have your own idea, please contact one of our staff members:

Prof.dr. Arno Kentgens
Dr. Ernst van Eck
Dr. Marco Tessari

Research projects: now a list of possible projects will follow. This list will give you an idea of the range things we do at our department and what you can expect from a project at our department.

Biomass as a source of functional  materials.
Contact: Dr. Ernst van Eck

Solid state NMR is a suitable method to investigate biomass and its derivatives  because of its versatile and non-destructive character, probing the local molecular environment, even for non-crystalline materials. This enables the structural analysis on a molecular scale of fresh and treated biomass without any physico-chemical alterations of the samples. We look at biomass as a renewable source for feedstock chemicals but it is also possible to employ these (with the correct treatment) as as a carbon nano dots, functional luminescent materials.

Avanced battery materials
Contact: Dr. Ernst van Eck

In solid state batteries the liquid electrolyte has been replaced by a solid electrolyte. Much research has been performed in finding new solid electrolyte materials with high conductivity. The current focus is on lithium-ion materials, ranging from crystalline materials to polymers, amorphous composites and glasses. Not only the electrolyte material benefits from increased conductivity also in the electrode materials this is an important issue. Using 7Li solid state NMR one can readily measure mobilities of lithium within all these materials.

The structure of TiCl2
Contact: A. Wong MsC

Ziegler-Natta catalysts are one of the most industrially relevant catalysts for polyolefin production. Nonetheless, their structures and catalytic mechanisms are still not fully understood. Previous studies from our group have investigated various components of the Ziegler-Natta catalysts via solid state NMR spectroscopy. For instance, TiClx model compounds can be employed to examine the local Ti coordination environment in these catalysts. In this project, we will study the structure of TiCl2. A large emphasis will be placed on optimizing the synthetic procedure for TiCl2, with opportunities to perform NMR characterization on the synthesized product.

Large-scale energy storage
Contact: E. Wenbo Zhao

large scale energy storage

Large-scale energy storage is becoming increasingly critical to balance the intermittency between renewable energy production and consumption. Redox Flow Batteries (RFBs), based on inexpensive and sustainable redox-active materials, are promising storage technologies. A RFB consists of two tanks of redox-active electrolytes, one catholyte and one anolyte, and its capacity can be scaled up just by increasing the volume of the tanks. The electrolytes flow through an electrochemical cell where redox reactions happen. Due to this design, one of the distinct features of RFBs is the decoupling of their energy storage and power generation, which provides unique opportunities for in situ monitoring.

We have developed in situ NMR metrologies to probe the electrolyte in the flow path or in the battery cell (Nature 2020, 579, 224). A wide range of redox processes can be readily studied. For example, using the bulk magnetization changes (observed via the proton NMR shift of the water resonance) of the anthraquinone resonances, we measured the concentration of paramagnetic species and thus demonstrated a new method to measure the state of charge of the battery (UK patent application 2102339.5).

Internship projects are available on various aspects of the operando NMR studies of flow batteries and electrocatalytic nitrogen/carbon dioxide reduction. For example, the student can be involved in the development of the second-generation operando NMR methods that incorporates the microfluidic NMR technology. The student will develop a skill set in NMR spectroscopy and electrochemistry, both are fundamentally fun and practically useful.

Website

Internship type
B Chemistry B Science M Molecular Chemistry M Physical Chemistry M Physics of Molecules and Materials

Area
materials chemistry, materials science, physical chemistry, chemical physics, NMR, spectroscopy, analytical chemistry, flow chemistry

Topic
NMR, batteries, renewables, green economy, electrochemistry, catalysis

Impact on
Sustainability, environment, green energy, green IT, renewable energy

Techniques
NMR, solid state NMR, EPR, Voltammetry, Microfluidics

Understanding electrochemical ammonia synthesis and CO2 reduction by operando NMR methods
Contact: E. Wenbo Zhao