PhD in catalysts development for urea electrosynthesis

Do you want to develop sustainable energy storage solutions for the future? Do you want to use your curiosity, technical knowledge, and enthusiasm to contribute to the UN sustainability goals and create a sustainable world? In our multidisciplinary research team, we have a PhD vacancy in catalysts development for urea synthesis.

Join our team to design and improve, in close cooperation with other universities and industries, stable and efficient electrocatalysts based on abundant materials for urea synthesis. This innovative synthesis route is a strong candidate for circular N use and decentralized fertilizer production.

Your job
Urea is essential for global food production, yet its conventional manufacture is highly energy-intensive and relies heavily on fossil resources. Developing electrochemical routes that combine captured CO₂ with nitrogen recovered from wastewater offers an opportunity to simultaneously reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, recover valuable nutrients, and enable more circular chemical production. This PhD project will contribute to the transition towards sustainable fertilizer production by developing technologies that transform waste streams into valuable products under mild operating conditions.
The PhD candidate will develop electrocatalytic routes for sustainable urea production by coupling CO₂ reduction with nitrate/nitrite reduction under ambient conditions. The research will focus on developing and screening metallic and bimetallic catalysts, with particular emphasis on identifying the active sites that promote selective N–C bond formation while suppressing competing reactions. The candidate will investigate how catalyst composition, electrolyte conditions and impurities influence activity and selectivity, using electrochemical and mechanistic studies to establish catalyst structure–performance relationships. The most promising catalysts will then be optimized and evaluated under practically relevant electrolysis conditions, contributing to the development of a scalable, low-carbon alternative to conventional urea production.

The team
You will perform your PhD research in a multidisciplinary research team. The Electrocatalytic Synthesis and Electrochemical Interfaces (ESEI) is a vibrant research group focused on the fundamental and applied aspects of catalyzed reactions relevant to a clean, sustainable future. Our primary interest lies in the interface of heterogeneous catalysis and materials design, with a strong emphasis on elucidating the mechanism of (electro)catalytic reactions. The electrochemistry team's research focuses on electrocatalysis and electro(catalytic) synthesis for sustainable processes and the production of high-value chemicals, such as fuels and organic molecules, from “waste” substrates, for example, carbon dioxide and biomass. The main aim is to understand, develop, and optimize electrochemical reactions under practical, relevant conditions to take a step further in using electrochemistry at industrial scale.