PhD Studentship: Environmentally friendly CFRPS repair/bonding and selective debonding towards circular products

This is a 3.5 year PhD studentship co-funded by the University of Manchester and industry. Funding will cover tuition fees and stipend set at the UKRI rate (£19,237 for 2024/25). The start date will be October 2024. 

The ‘Advanced Nanomaterials Group’ is a large team of researchers that focuses on developing scalable processes to synthesize nanomaterials with well-defined atomic structures, assemble them into functional macroscale structures, and use them for sustainable energy and environmental applications (https://advancednanomaterials.weebly.com/). We are based at the National Graphene Institute (NGI) and Henry Royce Institute (University of Manchester) and we collaborate with academic and industrial partners both in the UK and globally. This PhD project is supported by Syensqo, a leading provider of specialty polymers for electric vehicles, lightweight materials for aerospace, and bio-sourced solvents and surfactants for consumer products. As scientific explorers pursuing breakthroughs that advance humanity, one of Syensqo’s priorities is to invest in a sustainable future. The PhD student will join the ‘Advanced Nanomaterials Group’ under the supervision of Dr Cristina Vallés and Prof Ian Kinloch. This project will include academic and industrial supervision as well as travel to attend conferences and meetings. The student will have access to the labs and facilities within the Department of Materials, NGI and Henry Royce Institute, as well as an ‘as needed’ access to the capabilities of Syensqo.

About the PhD project:

Driven by CO₂ emission targets and the need for light-weight structures, the global use for carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRPs) is expected to grow very rapidly in the next years, leading to increased demand and challenges for in-service repair. The light-weight structures typically used in industry are made from CFRPs, light alloys or a combination of them, which are typically joined with high-performance, structural epoxy adhesives. Such adhesives are typically cured by the application of heat, which can be achieved inside or outside an oven/autoclave environment. If damaged in service, composite parts are often repaired by Out of autoclave (OoA) strategies. These often rely on localised heating which can result in considerable heat loss and often require significant insitu work. Thus, novel more sustainable OoA bonding strategies that allow localised heating within the bondline without externally heating the components and could facilitate the debonding of parts are required.

In our previous work we investigated epoxy nanocomposites filled with carbon nanomaterials for such self-heating adhesives which contained a conductive nanostructured electrical network with the ability to Joule heat just the bondline and achieve a complete curing, leading to a successful CFRPs repair and bonded joints with good mechanical performance [1-3]. These nanocomposites also showed potential for a selective Joule deconstruction of the bonded joints going towards circular products. 

The objective of this PhD project will be to develop new understanding on the Joule bonding and debonding processes of such conductive epoxy nanocomposites used as self-heating structural adhesives in CFRPs joints.

[1] Xia T. et al. CST 2018, 164:304-312.

[2] Huang Y. et al. CST 2023, 237:110007.

[3] Huang Y. et al. J. Compos. Sci. 2024, 8(3): 112-127.

Please contact the main supervisor before you apply: Dr Cristina Valles: cristina.valles@manchester.ac.uk

Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2.1 honours degree or a master’s (or international equivalent) in a relevant science or engineering related discipline.

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