Catalytic Metal Nanoparticles

PhD research studentship investigating catalytic metal nanoparticles of palladium and gold-palladium alloys and core-shell nanoparticles for future optimized catalysts.

Research will involve a variety of techniques including:

• Nanoparticle solution synthesis.

• Nanoparticle characterization on our new transmission electron microscope (TEM).

• Catalytic studies.

Due to the multi-discipline nature of the research previous experience in theses fields are not essential. By the end of the PhD the student will be fully proficient in all of these fields.

The project is part of the MacDiarmid Institute of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology

(http://www.macdiarmid.ac.nz/) and will involve links with other groups in New Zealand.

Fig: TEM images showing the evolution of the highly branched palladium nanostructures.