PhD position-In-situ 3D microstructure characterisation of solid oxide fuel cells using X-ray tomography methods

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label Burse autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:01 history_edu Catan Andreea Corina
The section for Imaging and Structural Analysis (ISA) in the Department of Energy Conversion and Storage at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is seeking a candidate for a PhD position, as a part of a Danish Strategic Research Council (DSF) project on the development and exploitation of three dimensional microstructural characterisation methods for energy materials.

DTU Energy Conversion is among the world’s leaders in the research and development of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and other energy conversion technologies. DTU Energy Conversion has cutting edge facilities and competences for fabrication, testing and characterisation of energy conversion technologies.

Responsibilities and tasks
The PhD project will be performed within the scope of the CINEMA (The alliance for imaging of energy materials) project running between 2014 and 2018. CINEMA is a large strategic alliance project whose primary aims is to investigate mass transport properties and microstructure in functional porous materials and damage mechanisms in porous and composite energy materials. A CINEMA cornerstone is the exploitation of in-situ 3D experiments for the improvement of 3D models of energy materials.

The PhD project aims to investigate microstructure changes in an operating SOFC as a function of operating conditions. To reach this aim it will be necessary to develop a suitable cell and sample environment that is able to operate in an X-ray beam (typically at a synchrotron radiation facility). X-ray tomography will be used to collect 3D reconstructed microstructures as a function of time, so-called “3D-movies”. The 3D movies will be compared to and provide input into 3D simulations of microstructure evolution. Ultimately the project aims to couple microstructure evolution directly to electrochemical measurements of SOFC performance.