18-month postdoctoral position in Ni-Al alloy cathode development for hydrogen production

id="offer-description" class="ecl-u-type-heading-2 ecl-u-mt-none ecl-u-mb-l">Offer Description This postdoctoral R&D project will focus on the modeling and analysis of hydrogen (H₂) gas bubble nucleation, growth, detachment, and removal in porous Raney Ni-based cathodes for alkaline water electrolysis. The research will combine multiphase and multiphysics numerical simulations with physical experiments to investigate the dynamic behavior of bubbles and their relationship with pore structure, including pore size, pore shape, porosity, and connectivity. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations will be employed to assess the in-operando gas-liquid two-phase flow behavior of developed catalyst layers within alkaline electrolysis cells. This approach will enable:. • Performance benchmarking against reference catalysts and electrode structures;. • Investigation of the influence of porous coating architecture on bubble transport and mass transfer;. • The creation of a virtual platform for testing and optimizing innovative Raney electrode design concepts. The simulation results will deepen the theoretical understanding of electrode processes, particularly for water electrolysis using Raney alloy-based coatings produced via thermal spraying and subsequent leaching. The data will also support comparisons between experimental observations and numerical models, providing guidance for the design of scalable, high-performance cathodic porous electrodes. The selected candidate will be