PhD Studentship: Permeation Resistant, Novel Ceramic Materials for the Fusion Fuel Cycle

Research theme: Fusion Engineering

This 4 year PhD project is fully funded and home students, and EU students with settled status, are eligible to apply. The successful candidate will received an annual tax free stipend set at the UKRI rate (£20,780 for 2025/26), a RTSG budget for will be used for project costs, and tuition fees will be paid. We expect the stipend to increase each year.

This EngD project is set within the Fusion Engineering CDT at the University of Manchester. Students will recieve a 3-month training programme in fusion engineering at the start of the course, delivered across the CDT partner universities. An EngD is closely linked to the industrial supervisor, and students are expected to undertake a placement. For further information about the CDT, please see our general page here or visit the website or send an email.

Within the framework of this project, the successful student researcher will design and fabricate novel coating materials and test them at the University of Manchester. Once fabricated, the materials will undergo a series of detailed characterisation and testing experiments using deuterium as a proxy for tritium at the University of Manchester including: Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) to determine material crystal structure; low energy deuterium exposure using the DELPHI-II system to introduce D at the near surface regions; quantification of permeability using a high-temperature gas-driven permeation system (GDPS); and additional techniques such as Thermal Desorption Spectroscopy (TDS) to quantify the retained deuterium, Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA) to provide depth profiling of the retained D, and ion beam irradiation at the Dalton Cumbria Facility to simulate neutron irradiation damage within the materials to be evaluated.

In the early stages of this project a screening exercise will be conducted to explore a wide range of coating material options, identifying common crystallographic features between promising materials in order to improve the understanding of desirable material. Included in the screening will be a first of a kind study of novel high entropy alloys synthesised for this project.

At the end of this project, the incumbent will have detailed knowledge of materials testing and characterisation within the framework of the tritium fuel cycle for fusion power, and be able to make well-informed, rational decisions on the materials selection and design of low tritium retention systems.

This EngD project is set within the Fusion Engineering CDT at the University of Manchester. Students will recieve a 3-month training programme in fusion engineering at the start of the course, delivered across the CDT partner universities. An EngD is closely linked to the industrial supervisor, and students are expected to undertake a placement. For further information about the CDT, please see our general page here or visit the website or send an email.

The project is sponsored by Commonwealth Fusion Systems, and there may be opportunities to visit and conduct experiments at CFS’s headquarters in Massachusetts, USA

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.

To apply, please contact the main supervisor, Prof Phil Edmondson - philip.edmondson@manchester.ac.uk.

Please include details of your current level of study, academic background and any relevant experience and include a paragraph about your motivation to study this PhD project.

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