Doctoral Candidate: Interaction of Aerogels with Complex Food Media

id="offer-description" class="ecl-u-type-heading-2 ecl-u-mt-none ecl-u-mb-l">Offer Description The Candidate will investigate how food-grade aerogels interact with complex food environments such as syrups, oils, emulsions, sauces and semi-solid matrices. The project will establish mechanistic structure–property–function relationships describing dynamic processes including swelling, shrinkage, liquid uptake, softening and partial disintegration, which determine aerogel performance in stabilisation, controlled release, sensory modification and shelf-life enhancement. The candidate will combine advanced experimental characterisation with multiscale modelling. Surface and bulk properties, including polarity, hydrogen bonding, rigidity, pore structure, charge, sorption kinetics and viscoelasticity, will be analysed using ATR-FTIR, NMR relaxometry, DSC/TGA, BET analysis, rheology and dynamic sorption. Real-time changes in complex media will be studied using optical and X-ray imaging, swelling analysis, tribology and microfluidic tools. Modelling activities will include diffusion–sorption models, continuum mechanics, coarse-grained simulations and data-driven predictive approaches. The goal is to develop predictive tools and practical guidelines for selecting aerogels for specific food applications. Hosted at TU Hamburg within FAroGels, the project includes secondments at partners and projects as METU, Barilla and Aerofybers, providing complementary training in rheology, oral tribol