Nanostructured Excitonic Superconductors
About the project or challenge area
A superconducting material that can conduct electricity at room temperature and pressure will revolutionise the energy industry and save billions of tons of CO2 emissions each year, yet such a material does not exist. We have some very interesting avenues to explore in order to find such a material, one of which is to combine a metal dichalcogenide like WSe2 and carbon nanomaterials. In this way, we hope to create the first superconductor that operates using an excitonic mechanism, which should be able to work at room temperature and pressure. It’s a crazy idea, but it just might work!
Why choose this opportunity?
You will have the opportunity to use simple synthetic techniques in a chemistry laboratory in order to create your target material. In order to characterize the material in full, you will be using electron microscopy and X-Ray diffraction in the School of Chemistry, as well as SQUID magnetometry in the School of Physics. There will be an opportunity to take your material to our collaborators at the Center for Nanotechnology Innovation in Pisa, Italy, in order to do 3D electron diffraction.
About you
No specific skills are required in order to undertake this project. Full training on all aspects will be given in-house.
How to apply
All students can apply using the button below, following the Admissions Statement (PDF, 220kB).
Before applying, we recommend getting in touch with the project's supervisors. If you are interested in this project and would like to learn more about the research you will be undertaking, please use the contact details on this page.
Supervisor
Your supervisor for this project will be Dr Simon Hall, Reader in Materials Chemistry in the School of Chemistry. You can contact him on Simon.Hall@bristol.ac.uk.
Find out more about your prospective research community
The Low Carbon Energy theme is a vibrant community of researchers who integrate expertise across multiple disciplines to develop sustainable energy policy and technologies which are crucial to providing a safe, reliable and low-cost energy supply for a growing global population. We innovate in every part of the energy system, from generation and storage, to regulation and end-user demand Find out more about the Low Carbon Energy theme.