PhD in Materials

This PhD scholarship is offered by the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience, a partnership between the Universities of Durham, Hull, Loughborough and Sheffield./nThe successful applicant will undertake six-month of training with the rest of the CDT cohort at the University of Hull before continuing their PhD research at Loughborough University./nThis project will explore chemical recycling of these materials through solvolysis, aiming to establish an efficient recovery route and quantify its environmental benefits./nThe student will characterise recovered polymer and fibre fractions using advanced analytical techniques and re-manufacture them into new composite laminates, benchmarking performance against virgin materials./nA full life cycle assessment (LCA) will be conducted to compare solvolytic recycling with conventional disposal and mechanical recycling pathways.