Postdoctoral Fellowship Polyurethane Recycling

Title: Postdoctoral Fellowship Polyurethane Recycling

Where the Chemistry Happens

We are seeking a talented and highly motivated postdoctoral researcher for a joint Postdoctoral Fellowship between BASF corporation and Prof. William Dichtel’s lab at Northwestern University. The potential candidate will spend the first year in BASF’s research and development site located in Wyandotte, MI, which is part of the Performance Materials North America Division at BASF. In this role, the postdoctoral researcher will work on the development and scaling up of innovative recycling technologies for polyurethane thermosets into valuable recycled products, under the supervision of an R&D manager at BASF and will be remotely co-supervised by prof-Will Dichtel at Northwestern University. The candidate will initially start with lab-scale polymer processing equipment to demonstrate feasibility, and then will move to pilot scale to scale up and optimize the recycling process conditions.

Required Qualifications:

-          PhD in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, polymer engineering, or a related field, from an accredited US university

-          Significant research experience in polymer synthesis, structural, thermal, and mechanical characterization of polymer samples

Additional Preferred Qualifications:

-          Previous experience with polyurethane polymers, including synthesis, processing, and characterization is preferred

-          Previous experience with polymer melt extrusion and rheology is preferred

-          Previous experience with polymer characterization techniques including differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), FT-IR spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), solution and solid-state NMR, and viscosity analysis, is preferred

-          Previous experience with characterizing tensile properties of polymers is preferred

Formula for Success: 

-          Leveraging your background in polymer chemistry and/or material science, you will be working on optimization and scaling up of a recycling method for polyurethane thermosets into valuable recycled materials

-          You will use polymer macro and micro-structure analysis techniques including DSC, DMA, TGA, GPC, and solution and solid state NMR, to characterize feedstock and recyclate, and you will measure mechanical properties of recyclate using tensile studies and other physical characterization techniques

-          In addition to scaling up current PU thermoset recycling technique, you will leverage your effective project and time management skills to manage a scouting project of another recycling technique in the lab-scale and demonstrate feasibility of the method to transition to pilot scale

-          You will be supervised by an experienced R&D manager at BASF and co-supervised by Prof. Will Dichtel at Northwestern University