MSCA-IF: Joint application at the University of Granada. Department of Inorganic Chemistry.

Professor Francisco Carrasco-Marín, from the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) in 2020 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (more information: http://sl.ugr.es/0aNV).

Brief description of the institution:

The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. The UGR has been awarded with the "Human Resources Excellence in Research (HRS4R)", which reflects the UGR’s commitment to continuously improve its human resource policies in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The UGR is also a leading institution in research, located in the top 5/10 of Spanish universities by a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, or international funding.

UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking (http://sl.ugr.es/0aw0). The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) places the UGR in 268th position in the world and as the 4th highest ranked University in Spain, reaffirming its position as an institution at the forefront of national and international research. From the perspective of specialist areas in the ARWU rankings, the UGR is outstanding in Documentation (ranked in the 36th in the world) or Food science technology (ranked 37th in the world), Mathematics and Computer Science (ranked among the top 76-100 in the world).

The UGR has 4 researchers at the top of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list in the Computer Science area. With regard to broader subject fields, the UGR is ranked in 45th position in the universities worldwide in the discipline of Engineering. It is also well recognized for its web presence (http://sl.ugr.es/0a6i) taking 36th place in the top 200 Universities in Europe. Internationally, we bet decidedly by our participation in the calls of the Framework Programme of the European Union. For the duration of the last two Framework Programmes, the UGR has obtained a total of 66 projects, with total funding of 18.02 million euros, and for H2020, 80 projects with total funding around 20.6 million euros.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group

Carbon Materials Research Group of University of Granada (UGR) has been intensively developing a wide variety of carbon materials, including classical activated carbons to others more advanced, such as aerogels, xerogels, nanofibers and microspheres. The main advantage of carbon aerogels and xerogels is the control of manifold synthesis parameters such as, concentration and nature of reagents, pH, age time, drying method and carbonization conditions, leading to materials with high purity and homogeneity but mainly to tailor the chemical characteristics and porosity to a nanometer-scale. Our group has incorporated variations to the original synthesis and the carbon gels were studied in many energy and environmental applications. In fact, a large number and high-quality of publications, patents, PhD Theses has been achieved, providing an international recognition in the synthesis and modification of the textural and chemical characteristics of carbon materials and their corresponding applications.

Project description

1. Design and development of macrostructured monoliths by 3D printing.

Indirect Synthesis: Use of 3D printing to obtain polymeric templates, filling them with the carbon gel precursor mixture and the subsequent removal of the template.

Direct Synthesis: direct 3D printing of carbon monoliths by using the carbon gel precursor mixture as printing ink. Preparation of printable inks by controlling the rheology of the sol-gel process and printing conditions.

2. Design and development of structured catalysts.

Synthesis of the active phases for the selective hydrogenation of CO2 and incorporation on the monoliths surface: Cu or Pd on partially reducible oxides (CeO2, TiO2, ZrO2, VOx) and bimetallic for the selective hydrogenation to methanol and Ni, Ru on said oxides for hydrogenation to methane.

Study of the incorporation of active phases during the 3D printing process to obtain inorganic oxides-carbon composites.

Obtaining bifunctional materials with defined active sites for the CO2 dissociation and for the H2 transfer.

3. Conversion of CO2 into value-added compounds (methane or methanol) at atmospheric pressure, catalysed by monolithic catalysts obtained by 3D printing.

Research Area

Chemistry (CHE) and Environment and Geosciences (ENV)

For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Francisco Carrasco-Marín (fmarin@ugr.es):

• CV
• Letter of recommendation (optional)