Advancing our understanding of and creating next-generation models for water and electrolytes to enable improved batteries, cleaner industrial processes, accurate environmental assessments, and sustainable technologies.
The overarching theme for this PhD project is advanced molecular thermodynamics for water and electrolyte solutions.
It is part of the ERC Consolidator Grant “Revolutionizing Molecular Thermodynamics by Water and Electrolytes (REMOTE)”.
The strong electrostatic interactions between dissolved ions have, according to J. M. Prausnitz, made it difficult to deduce generalized theoretical models for electrolyte solutions.
This work will be centered around developing association theories for water and new theories in electrolyte solution thermodynamics. The emphasis will be on producing theoretically sound thermodynamic models that generalize to a broad range of electrolytes.
The research topic thus poses an opportunity to gain a better theoretical understanding of said solutions, which is a worthwhile problem in itself due to the lack of general models.
Furthermore, general models are important because electrolyte solutions are ubiquitous in industry, biology and nature in general.
Consider the following important examples in which a better theoretical understanding of electrolyte solution behavior is relevant: Electrochemical devices such as batteries and sensors, documentation of the environmental impact of electrolytes and the modelling of amine solutions in gas cleaning processes.
Main Supervisors
Professor Professor Xiaodong Liang
and Professor Georgios M. Kontogeorgis.