Description du sujet de thèse

The successful candidate will join the "Biosourced Materials" team at the Institut Jean Lamour in Epinal as a PhD student. He/she will work under the supervision of Vanessa Fierro (DR CNRS) and Jimena Castro Gutierrez (IR CNRS) in the frame of a PhD contract funded by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) through DISTICTION project. He/she will be working on synthetizing phenolic-type resins by reacting phenolic-rich fractions with aldehydes, such as formaldehyde. Coal-derived phenols will be mixed with bio-oils or their phenolic-rich fractions to produce phenolic resins. The carbonization of these resins will result in carbon materials with diverse carbon yield, surface chemistry and microstructure. Crosslinking of pure phenols with aldehydes (e.g., resorcinol-formaldehyde or tannin-formaldehyde) is well understood, but reactions with biosourced phenolic-rich fractions, which contain a variety of molecules with varying reactivity, may present additional challenges.
In DISTINCTION, our goal is to obtain hard carbons with distinct microstructures for use as anode materials in sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries. To this end different experimental parameters will be adjusted, including resin formulation (e.g., oil/aldehyde ratio, type of aldehyde, acid or base catalysis), crosslinking processes (solvothermal synthesis, mechanosynthesis), pre-oxidation (e.g., time and temperature) and carbonization temperature.

The candidate will work on synthesizing and optimizing carbonaceous materials derived from the industrial partner's products. This work will require the use of a wide range of characterization techniques to thoroughly understand the structure and properties of the resulting materials. X-ray diffraction (XRD) will be employed to determine the average interlayer spacing within graphite-like stacks and their dimensions, while Raman spectroscopy will provide a quantitative measure of structural defects in the carbon framework. Gas physisorption using CO₂ and N₂ will assess the accessible porosity and surface area, revealing pore sizes ranging from ~0.4 nm to 50 nm. Helium pycnometry will be used to evaluate the true density of the hard carbon particles; combined with interlayer spacing data from XRD, this will offer a rough estimate of closed porosity. Elemental analysis will determine the content of heteroatoms such as oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. Electrical conductivity measurements will be conducted, and scanning and transmission electron microscopies (SEM/TEM) will visualize morphology, particle size, and local structural disorder. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in air will quantify defect levels through gasification behavior, with peak temperatures expected to decrease with increasing defect concentration—slow heating rates (1–2 °C min⁻¹) will be applied to detect subtle differences. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) will probe total porosity, including closed pores, to estimate their size. Finally, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) will be used to analyze the bonding nature of heteroatoms, such as the types of oxygen-containing functional groups within the carbon framework.

Skills :
The candidate must hold a Master's Degree in Materials Science. Experience in materials synthesis and characterization is necessary. A background in organic chemistry and polymers synthesis will be appreciated. Other essential criteria for this position are responsiveness, autonomy within the laboratory, and the ability to work in a team and in an industrial environment. An excellent level of English is essential. A good command of French will also be greatly appreciated.

Contexte de travail

The Institute Jean Lamour (IJL) is a joint research unit of CNRS and Université de Lorraine.
Focused on materials and processes science and engineering, it covers: materials, metallurgy, plasmas, surfaces, nanomaterials and electronics.
The IJL has 263 permanent staff (30 researchers, 134 teacher-researchers, 99 IT-BIATSS) and 394 non-permanent staff (182 doctoral students, 62 post-doctoral students / contractual researchers and more than 150 trainees), of 45 different nationalities.
Partnerships exist with 150 companies and our research groups collaborate with more than 30 countries throughout the world.
The IJL is based in Nancy, on the Artem campus, and several of its teams are located on other Nancy campuses, as well as in Metz and Epinal (Campus Bois, where the host team is based).

Le poste se situe dans un secteur relevant de la protection du potentiel scientifique et technique (PPST), et nécessite donc, conformément à la réglementation, que votre arrivée soit autorisée par l'autorité compétente du MESR.