04 Postdoctoral Fellowship at Maastricht University, Netherlands

This project is part of the SuFiP-S project where two departments of Maastricht University (Circular Chemical Engineering, CCE and Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials, AMIBM) collaborate with Sabic. The goal of the SuFiP-S project is to develop sustainable and fire-safe plastics (polypropylene) based on fully organic phosphorus-sulfur compounds.

Polypropylene (PP) is a significant plastic in flame retardant (FR) products in electronics and transportation. Single-molecule FRs like phosphorus-sulfur (P-S) FRs are part of the state-of-the-art research for applications in PP due to their promising FR performance at low concentrations. However, P-S FRs are not commercially used because their decomposition mechanisms are unknown during processing and in the use phase, thus leading to poor recyclability. This project proposes a systematic interdisciplinary study on the degradation, processing, and recycling of PP/FR plastics to lay a scientific basis for developing new PP/FR plastics and increasing their recycling quantity and quality.

The task of the post-doc at AMIBM is to synthesize flame retardants and to investigate their degradation mechanism during processing and recycling conditions via analytical techniques. In a first part of the research, the degradation of pure flame retardants will be studied, later the flame retardant blended in a polypropylene matrix will be the focus. The post-doc will work closely together with a PhD student in the group of dr. Ali Gooneie from CCE at UM. The latter are responsible for mechanical recycling studies and modelling work related to the degradation mechanism of the flame retardants. Flame retardants will be upscaled for the testing by the colleagues from CCE. Based on this interaction, the chemical structure of the flame retardant will adapted in order allow better recycling.

The post-doc will be appointed at AMIBM, Maastricht University, which is part of the Faculty of Science and Engineering. You will work in the Sustainable Polymer Synthesis group of Associate Professor Katrien Bernaerts, which focusses on the synthesis and design of polymer materials with tunable properties and recyclability exploiting the functionality of biobased building blocks. You will operate from the Brightlands-Chemelot Campus in Geleen (Nl), where the labs are located.

These polyolefin mixtures are usually immiscible, leading to phase separation and heterogeneous morphologies. The final properties of the blends are strongly dependent on the final morphology, which depends on, for instance, the processing conditions, viscosity ratio, interfacial tension, and their volume fractions. The use of compatibilizers can substantially affect the morphology and, therefore, the performance of the blends. How do these compatibilizer additives behave during mechanical recycling?

At the same time, many efforts are being made to design advanced additives to control polymer structure during repeated melt processing of plastics. These efforts mainly aim to find a balance between polymer structure and melt viscosity, thus achieving optimized recyclability.

Despite their central role, the impact of many additives, including compatibilizers and processing aids, have not been systematically characterized in recycled plastics when they undergo re-processing. This issue is even more challenging considering the cross-contamination among different additives. Motivated by such questions, in the PlastiCycle project, we aim to explore the role of such additives by pinning their fundamental physicochemical interactions in recycled polyolefins.

The Department of Society Studies is looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to undertake exciting research about hospital practices. You will be part of a new team doing research helping to address the escalating issue of clinical waste. The project is called The Upcycled Clinic: A global ethnography of material creativity in contemporary medicine (Make Do Medicine for short). The focus of this European Research Council funded project is on hospitals and clinics, which have become sites of disposability in recent years. Attempts to address this can be top-down and technocratic, often still reliant on a mode of further production. Make Do Medicine takes a different route into the problem. It focuses on creative practices already happening in the clinic, involving making the most of existing materials. You will be part of a team conducting research around the world where such improvisations are highlighted due to different constraints.

The project focuses on the unexplored yet potentially insightful practices of material creativity where existing materials are being repurposed for another use. The pandemic’s disruptions offered the world’s scientists a fascinating natural experiment for looking at innovations in times of crisis and has important lessons for understanding the role of creative repurpose. But how to study this some years later?

The ambitious goal of this postdoc will be look further into the early period of the pandemic to draw lessons and insights from existing data and material gathered by other researchers in and about clinical settings. In your role you will first locate this data and then undertake a qualitative analysis of the material. Initially the research will involve working with datasets from Dutch settings, however this will likely expand to other countries. Methodologically the research means working with an ethnographic sensibility (see McGranahan 2018), where you will study these datasets curious about improvisations with materials, noticing details of the hospital practices. Data analysis can be enhanced through conducting interviews, object analysis and fieldwork where needed.

Als postdoc ‘Social Connection’ krijg je de unieke kans om onderzoek te doen naar de rol van de sociale omgeving bij preventie van infectieziekten.

De sociale omgeving en sociaal contact zijn van groot belang voor een gezond leven; ook tijdens een infectieziekte-uitbraak. Het is echter complex: sociaal contact draagt bij aan gezondheid maar vergroot ook de kans op verspreiding van infecties. Tevens beïnvloedt de sociale omgeving hoe goed men zich houdt aan infectiepreventie maatregelen (denk aan contactbeperking, afstand houden, handen wassen en vaccineren). Gedrag hangt dus af van sociale netwerken, bestaande uit familie, vrienden, kennissen in de wijk, werk, of verenigingen, naast ook individuele factoren (zoals risicoperceptie).