Postdoctoral Fellowship Polyurethane Recycling

Job Title: Postdoctoral Fellowship - Polyurethane Recycling
Job Location: Wyandotte, MI
Job Duration: 12 Months on W2

Job Description:
Where the Chemistry Happens
We are seeking a talented and highly motivated postdoctoral researcher for a joint Postdoctoral Fellowship between *** corporation and Prof. William Dichtel's lab at Northwestern University. The potential candidate will spend the first year in ***'s research and development site located in Wyandotte, MI, which is part of the Performance Materials North America Division at ***. 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 *** 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
• Candidate needs to be a US citizen, green card holder, or international applicant with a PhD from a university in the USA and currently living in the USA

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 the 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 *** and co-supervised by Prof. Will Dichtel at Northwestern University