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ESPCI Paris
ESPCI Paris is a major institution of higher education (a French "Grande École d’Ingénieurs"), an internationally renowned research center (6 Nobel Prizes), and a fertile ground of innovation for industry (3 start-ups created/year). ESPCI is a highly multidisciplinary environment with teaching and research in physics, chemistry and biology.
Soft Matter and Engineering Laboratory
The postdoc will work in the SIMM laboratory, under the supervision of Jean Comtet.
Project
Ionic charge transport processes at the interface between solid surfaces and liquid electrolytes are at the heart of a number of energy and environment related applications (blue energy, super-capacitors and batteries, nanofiltration…). However, our fundamental understanding of these dynamic interfacial processes remains poor, due to the strong experimental barriers related to the exploration of ionic charge dynamics at the intimate scale of the interface.
In this context, we recently demonstrated that optically active defects hosted at the surface of 2D hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN) crystals can be used as optical markers to track the motion of single H+ proton charges at the hBN/water interface. Using Single Molecule and Super-Resolution Microscopy techniques, we could reveal single proton trajectories through the successive activation of fluorescent defects at the surface of the crystal, bringing novel insights on charge dynamics at these interfaces.
The aim of this postdoctoral position is to take advantage of this unique experimental system, to investigate out-of-equilibrium transport at the scale of the single interfacial charge. We will combine these single-molecule microscopy techniques with ionic and fluidic transport measurements in micro and nanofluidic devices. This unique combination will allow us to access to the dynamics of single proton charges on the solid surface under out-of-equilibrium fluidic and electric forcings and correlate it with ensemble transport in the channel. We then plan on extending these strategies to other materials. These measurements at ultimate scales will allow us to gain unprecedented molecular-scale insights on charge transport processes at flowing, electrically driven and confined solid/liquid interfaces.
Science Advances (2021), 7(40), eabg8568. (https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abg8568)
Nature Nanotechnology (2020), 15(7), 598-604. (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-020-0695-4)
Activities/Keywords
Single Molecule Fluorescence Microscopy, Super-Resolution, Micro and Nano-Fluidics, Electro-kinetics, 2D-materials, Solid/Liquid Interfaces.
Requirements
Education requirements : PhD
Recruitment terms
Starting date : From November 2022
Duration : 1-year, renewable
Salary : according to professional experience
Contact
Please send your applications by email to Jean Comtet (jean.comtet@espci.fr).
10, Rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France.