PhD in Chemistry – Uranium catalysts for the production of sustainable chemicals

Start date: October 2025

Applications are invited for a fully funded 3.5 year PhD studentship in heterogeneous catalysis and actinide chemistry with an October 2025 start at the University of Glasgow. This collaborative PhD project is supervised by Dr Emma K. Gibson and Dr Joy H. Farnaby.  

Can uranium oxides be used to catalyse chemical reactions essential for the transition to a sustainable chemicals industry? 

Uranium’s promise as a catalyst can be dated back to its use in the Haber-Bosch process for ammonia production, being used prior to the implementation of iron-based catalysts. Despite the difficulty in handling U-materials, their use for the removal of volatile organics and chloro-organic compounds was demonstrated in the 1990’s.1 Since then, U-catalysts have been studied for several challenging catalytic reactions such as Fischer Tropsch synthesis from biomass and partial oxidation of methane to methanol.  

This project will focus on environmentally important reactions, including CO2 utilisation, methane partial oxidation to methanol and dry reforming of bio-ethanol.  

Our key question is whether we can optimize U-based heterogeneous catalysts for major environmental reactions, thereby making use of stored spent nuclear fuel and combatting pollutants. The potential of U-based catalysts has been known for decades, but structure-function relationships are not so easily determined due to the toxicity and radioactivity of the samples. This PhD has an ambitious scope of work to achieve this aim, including synthesis of U-catalysts via precise synthetic actinide chemistry routes, reactivity, and advanced spectroscopy. The student will be exposed to challenging catalytic reactions and be trained in characterisation techniques such as Raman, XRD and DRIFTS in Glasgow. In addition, we will also use advanced characterization techniques at Central Facilities such as Inelastic Neutron Scattering and X-ray Absorption spectroscopy, providing invaluable practical experience of working at large-scale facilities and unprecedented insight into theses challenging catalyst materials.  

Applicants are encouraged to contact Emma Gibson (emma.gibson@glasgow.ac.uk) or Joy Farnaby (Joy.Farnaby@glasgow.ac.uk) as soon as possible: Please include a CV and a cover letter.  

Applications will be considered only until the position is filled.  

1. Nature, 384 (1996) 341

How to Apply:  Please refer to the following website for details on how to apply: 

http://www.gla.ac.uk/research/opportunities/howtoapplyforaresearchdegree/.