PhD and Postdoc positions: surface and defect chemistry of complex oxides at the University of Bern, Switzerland
Two PhD and one Postdoc positions are available starting from January 1st 2016 in the about to be established Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) Professorship group of Ulrich Aschauer at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry , University of Bern, Switzerland. The planned research will use density functional theory (DFT) to understand, at a fundamental level, the surface and defect chemistry of complex oxides in view of their application in the renewable energy domain. Complex oxides have, due to their large chemical and structural flexibility, recently gained much interest for these applications. Compared to simpler oxides such as TiO2, the understanding of their surface structure and chemistry is however still limited. The theoretical work carried out in this project is closely integrated with photo-electrochemical and surface science experiments at various institutions and will determine general trends for the reactivity as a function of the crystal structure a