About Project

This project is part of a 4-year Dual PhD degree programme between the National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Taiwan and the University of Liverpool in England. As Part of the NTHU-UoL Dual PhD Award, students are in the unique position of being able to gain 2 PhD awards at the end of their degree from two internationally recognised world leading Universities. As well as benefiting from a rich cultural experience, students can draw on large scale national facilities of both countries and create a worldwide network of contacts across 2 continents.

We are seeking to recruit an enthusiastic and highly motivated student to work on a multidisciplinary project on the conversion of CO₂ to valuable fuels and chemicals using plasma catalysis and heterogeneous catalysis (for benchmarking). This PhD project will specifically focus on the rational design of advanced catalytic materials for selective CO₂ conversion, as well as getting new insights into the reaction mechanism using advanced and in situ catalyst characterisation.

You will be supervised by Professor Xin Tu at UoL and Prof. Tsan-Yao Chen at NTHU. You should have a Master degree (or near completion) in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Material Science or a closely related subject. Research experience in heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis or plasma catalysis is essential. Previous experience in CO2 conversion or C1 chemistry is highly desirable. You will work closely with team members as well as external collaborators. You should therefore be enthusiastic in the discipline, committed, and motivated with an aptitude for independent working as well as working as part of a diverse, interdisciplinary team. If you get your degree from a non-English-speaking country, you also need to meet the entry English language requirement (e.g., IELTS 6.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 for each component). You are expected to start on 1^st October 2022, or sooner after.

Funding Notes

This project is a part of a 4-year dual PhD programme between National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Taiwan and the University of Liverpool in England. It is planned that students will spend 2 years at NTHU and 2 years at the University of Liverpool. Both the University of Liverpool and NTHU have agreed to waive the tuition fees for the duration of the project and stipend of TWD 11,000/month will be provided as a contribution to living costs (the equivalent of £280 per month when in Liverpool).

If you are interested in this PhD studentship, please send your CV and personal statement to Prof. Tu, E-mail: xin.tu@liv.ac.uk

References

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/electrical-engineering-and-electronics/staff/xin-tu/  (Prof. Tu)

http://www.ess.nthu.edu.tw/p/406-1351-65680,r2082.php?Lang=en  (Prof. Chen)

Recent publications (Prof. Tu)

1. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 12020-12031
2. JACS Au 2022, 10.1021/jacsau.2c00028
3. Nature Rev. Mater. 2022, 7, 333-334.
4. Appl. Catal. B: Environ. 2022, 315, 121583.
5. Appl. Catal. B: Environ. 2020, 260, 118168.
6. ACS Catal. 2019, 9, 10780-10793.
7. ACS Catal. 2018, 8, 90-100.
8. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 13679-13683