Phd In Ultrasonic Wave Propagation And Biobased Materials

18 Jul 2023

Job Information

Organisation/Company

Université Claude Bernard Lyon1

Research Field

Physics » Acoustics

Engineering » Materials engineering

Physics » Condensed matter properties

Physics » Applied physics

Engineering » Biomaterial engineering

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

France

Application Deadline

2 Oct 2023 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

35

Offer Starting Date

2 Oct 2023

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Plant-derived metamaterials for ultrasonic energy harvesting

Ultrasonic energy harvesting has lately been introduced as a promising wireless energy transfer solution to power miniaturized wearable and implantable electronic devices for wireless communication and sensing, remote health monitoring, and ultrasound-induced therapies (Jiang et al., Nano Energy, 2020). However, most current ultrasonic energy harvesters operate using bulky, lead-based piezoelectric materials, which still present major limitations. For instance, they are brittle, inflexible, and contain toxic elements, which limits their wearability and biomedical applications. Moreover, the production and disposal of these inorganic materials pose serious environmental and sustainability challenges.

Plants present a biobased materials' platform to overcome these challenges due to their piezoelectric behavior. In this project, we aim to design plant-based materials, with enhanced piezoelectricity, for efficient energy harvesting of ultrasonic waves. In order to optimize the electromechanical coupling in these biobased structures, we will exploit the interplay between recently discovered phononic features in plants (Abi Ghanem et al., App. Mat. Today, 2021) and existing plant piezoelectricity (Maiti et al. Nano Energy, 2017). In this context, the proposed Ph.D. will focus on identifying phononic features for ultrasonic energy localization in plant-based composite materials and converting plant-based composites into efficient energy harvesters.

As part of this, the Ph.D. student will help implement the necessary tools to:

1) Fabricate and characterize micro-structured cellular membranes made from dehydrated plant scaffolds using soft lithography, optical microscopy, nanometrology (i.e. profilometry, AFM, SEM), and image processing.

2) Measure and analyze the propagation of MHz to GHz ultrasonic waves in the fabricated samples using laser ultrasonics setups and signal processing techniques.

3) Model and evaluate the energy harvesting performance of the designed materials via experimental characterization and numerical modeling of their phononic and piezoelectric behavior, as well as their electromechanical coupling

The candidate will be part of the Biophysics team at ILM, and will work under the supervision of Maroun Abi Ghanem and Thomas Dehoux.

Requirements

Research Field

Physics » Applied physics

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field

Physics » Acoustics

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

The candidate is expected to have a strong background in acoustics and elastic wave propagation in solids, finite element modeling (preferably in COMSOL Multiphysics), as well as in lasers and the design of optical setups. Knowledge in bioengineering and bio-based materials science, microfabrication, microscopy, and materials characterization using nanometrology and image processing is also highly desirable.

Languages

ENGLISH

Level

Excellent

Languages

FRENCH

Level

Good

Research Field

Physics » Applied physicsPhysics » AcousticsEngineering » Materials engineering

Additional Information Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Institut Lumière Matière

Country

France

City

Villeurbanne

Postal Code

69622

Street

6 rue Ada Byron

Geofield

Where to apply

E-mail

[email protected]

Contact

City

VILLEURBANNE Cedex

Website

https:// www. univ-lyon1.fr

Street

43, boulevard du 11 novembre 191869622

E-Mail

[email protected]

STATUS: EXPIRED