Making and Unmaking Multiblock Sustainable Polymers: An AI-Guided Automated Approach to Catalyst Discovery and Sequence Control. Automated experimental interrogation and AI guided understanding of depolymerization reaction.

The University of Bath is inviting applications for the following PhD project commencing in September 2024.

Anticipated Supervisory Team:

Lead supervisor: Prof Matthew Davidson, Department of Chemistry and Institute for Sustainability, University of Bath

Co-supervisor: Dr Sourav Chatterjee, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Bath

Overview of the Research:

This project involves developing an automated flow synthesizer platform, based on the radial synthesier concept developed in the Chatterjee Group, [1] to explore controlled polymerisation and depolymerisation reactions. The synthesiser will be designed for two related purposes. First, to optimise sequence control in controlled ring-opening polymerisations, using catalysts developed in the Davidson Group [2], in order to synthesise multiblock sustainable materials with new polymer architectures and tuneable properties.  Second, to explore various catalysts combinations coupled with interrogating reaction/process conditions and training machine learning models for predicting depolymerization.[3] A specialized automated flow platform will be developed for automating, digitalizing, and controlling synthesis procedures to acquire reproducible experimental data with minimum human intervention for building training sets for machine learning. Data generated from the automated synthesizer will be used to facilitate and automate the search process for discovering new polymer architectures, catalyst compositions, and optimal reaction conditions for understanding and controlling the polymerisation and depolymerisation reactions. This will lead to automated optimisation of new materials and reactions for targeted performance, yield and selectivity.

Project keywords: Sustainable polymers, Multiblock polymers, Automation, Automated experiments, Depolymerization reaction, Artificial Intelligence.

Candidate Requirements:

Applicants should hold, or expect to receive, a First Class or good Upper Second Class UK Honours degree (or the equivalent) in a relevant subject. A master’s level qualification would also be advantageous.

In addition, the successful candidate will have a background in chemical sciences or engineering with experience in synthetic laboratory techniques relevant to homogeneous catalysts and polymer synthesis and characterisation, together with a practical ability to assemble and maintain equipment. 

Non-UK applicants must meet our English language entry requirement.

Enquiries and Applications:

Informal enquiries are encouraged and should be directed to Prof Matthew Davidson (email [email protected]) and Dr Sourav Chatterjee (email [email protected]).

Formal applications should be submitted via the University of Bath’s online application form for a PhD in Chemistry.

IMPORTANT:

1. When completing the online application form, in the ‘Funding your studies’ section, please select ‘Donor or Alumni Funded Studentship’ from the first drop-down list and specify Hughes PhD Scholarship in the text box. In the ‘Your PhD project’ section, please state the project title and supervisor’s name in the appropriate boxes. Failure to complete these steps will delay the processing of your application and may cause you to miss the deadline.
2. Applications may close earlier than the advertised deadline if a suitable candidate is found; therefore, we recommend that you contact the supervisors to discuss the project before you apply, and then submit your formal application as early as possible.

More information about applying for a PhD at Bath may be found on our website.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

We value a diverse research environment and aim to be an inclusive university, where difference is celebrated and respected. We welcome and encourage applications from under-represented groups.

If you have circumstances that you feel we should be aware of that have affected your educational attainment, then please feel free to tell us about it in your application form. The best way to do this is a short paragraph at the end of your personal statement.