Slovenia is a small country at the Adriatic see and at the sunny side of the Alps.

Ljubljana is its capital and in the center of it The National Institute of Chemistry is positioned, which employs over 250 researchers,  has applied for 35 patents in last 5 years and is running 22 EU founded projects.

MARIE SKLODOWSKA CURIE INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP CALL UNDER HORIZON 2020

The National Institute of Chemistry Slovenia is seeking to develop a joint funding proposals with experienced, post PhD researchers, for submission under the Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellowship (MSCA IF).  The applicants must, at the deadline of submission (14. 9. 2017), have a doctoral degree or at least four years of full time equivalent research experience.

Proposed research topics:

Designed bio-nanostructures (protein origami)

Cancer immunotherapy

Synthetic biology of mammalian cells – design of signalling pathways

Supervisor: prof. dr. Roman Jerala

Visible light assisted photocatalysis for water treatment

Materials used as photocatalysts in the process of heterogeneous photocatalytic oxidation must be significantly improved in order to make this process economically attractive. In this respect, novel nanostructured and nanoshaped photocatalysts (including nanoplasmonic solids) will be developed that will allow efficient harvesting of visible light spectrum. The developed materials should have appropriate morphological, optical and electronic properties which will minimize charge recombination, and on the other hand maximize oxidative destruction and mineralization of water dissolved organic pollutants.

Supervisor: prof. dr. Albin Pintar

Direct biogas to liquid fuel conversion

Biogas (i.e. a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide) is produced by anaerobic dark fermentation of solid wastes and renewables. However, to ease its utilization it would be from the practical point of view of great significance to transform biogas to liquid fuels or liquid fuel additives, without the formation of intermediate synthesis gas. In this respect, multifunctional heterogeneous catalysts will be developed that will enable an efficient and direct transformation of biogas to either dimethylether or methanol in a single reactor unit.

Supervisor: prof. dr. Albin Pintar

Catalytic Carbon Dioxide Activation and Conversion by Hydrogenation or Alkylation

- developing the concept of the “Methanol Economy” on the chemical recycling of CO2 to useful fuels

- utilizing the parallel reactor system with heated gas sampling system (w/ recycle option), automation to enable computer control, data logging and automatic conduction of experiments

- identifying the nature and role of each metal component in catalyst over CO2 hydrogenation

- emerging of low temperature reactions which can achieve a 100 % selectivity to methanol, so that it can reduce the consumption of energy on the reactor and reduce production costs

- expanding and investigating the predominant reaction pathway to further mixed metal oxide catalysts

Supervisor: prof. dr. Blaž Likozar

Direct Catalytic Methane Activation and Conversion to Aromatics and Alkenes

- methane utilization − one of the most important research targets in catalysis

- methane-to-propylene and methane-to-aromatics processes

- catalysts − CeO2 nanocrystals, zeolites & others

- development of novel catalytic routes

- propylene − raw material for a wide variety of products

Supervisor: prof. dr. Blaž Likozar

Catalytic Cellulose, Hemicellulose and Lignin Conversion to Value-added Bio-based Chemicals

- advance technology development for bio-refining & biotechnological process exploitation of different (LC/marine) biomasses

- cellulose fraction conversion to sorbitol, adipic acid or levulinic acid

- hemicellulose-derived furfural upgrade towards bio-monomers

- micro-kinetic model development for lignin depolymerisation reactions

- gas solubility studies in complex biomass-derived compounds using high-pressure view cell

Supervisor: prof. dr. Blaž Likozar

Electrocatalytic Carbon Dioxide Activation and Reduction, Electrolysis and Fuel Cells

- miniaturized PEM FC system (membrane electrode assembly (MEA) of c. 1 cm2)

- in-depth microscopy durability studies and method development

- new electrochemical processes for platinum-group metals (PGM) recycling

- in-situ electrochemical transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

- CO2 reduction in water and organic solvents (CO, methanol and ethylene)

Supervisor: prof. dr. Blaž Likozar

Pharmaceutical Process Engineering and Design for Small Molecules and Biosimilars

- translation of mechanistic multi-scale modelling to various unit operations and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API)

- continuous process design and optimization (predominantly for crystallizations and different chromatographic processes)

- miniaturization (i.e. plant-on-a-chip) and parallelization (i.e. numbering-up instead of conventional scale-up)

- disposable and single-use equipment application, as well as its optimization, where benefits would arose

- development of in-house software packages by compiling the existing mechanistic process modelling codes

Supervisor: prof. dr. Blaž Likozar

Electrocatalytic Carbon Dioxide Activation and Reduction, Electrolysis and Fuel Cells

Supervisor: prof. dr. Miran Gaberšček

Spectrally selective paint coatings, high solar absorptivity coatings, cool coatings, flame retardants, electrochromic devices, dye synthesized solar cells, thermochromics coatings, ionic liquids, anticorrosion coatings, pigments surface modification, hydrophobic surfaces, oleophobic surfaces, electrolytes, antifouling coatings, self-healing coatings.

Supervisor: prof. dr. Ivan Jerman

- Proteins involved in pathogenesis of intracellular bacteria like Mycobacteria and Listeria

-Membrane interactions of proteins from the immune system and bacterial pathogens

-3Evolution of small tightly folded binding modules and ligand binding sites

-Synthetic biology of nanopores

Supervisor: prof. dr. Gregor Anderluh and dr. Marjetka Podobnik

Development and application of solid-state NMR methods for the investigations of formation, for structure determination and for in-situ studies of the performance of porous catalysts and adsorbents.

(Expertise required by the applicant: basic programming skills (e.g. C, Matlab or similar; familiarity with Linux is an advantage).

Supervisor: prof. dr. Gregor Mali

Development of nanoporous materials for heat storage/transformation applications, including design of new porous solids and post-synthesis modification of sorbents, i.e. tailoring of hydrophilic properties of inorganic and metal-organic sorption materials.

Expertise required by the applicant: Laboratory synthesis skills, Understanding/use of characterisation methods (XRD, TG/DSC, SEM, gas sorption).

Supervisor: prof. dr. Nataša Zabukovec Logar and dr. Alenka Ristić

Development of nanoporous materials for carbon capture, storage and utilization (CCSU) technologies, also by providing more compact configurations (composite materials, porous monoliths, etc.) to improve the energy and production costs in gas separation and conversion.

Expertise required by the applicant: Laboratory synthesis skills, Understanding/use of characterisation methods (XRD, TG/DSC, SEM, gas sorption)

Supervisor: prof. dr. Nataša Zabukovec Logar and dr. Matjaž Mazaj

Development of multimetal functionalized porous materials for catalytic air and water purification (metals on porous supports, metals on mixed oxides photocatalyst TiO2/SiO2, double layered hydroxides on porous supports)

Expertise required by the applicant: Laboratory synthesis skills, Understanding/use of characterisation methods (XRD, TG/DSC, SEM, gas sorption).

Supervisor: prof. dr. Nataša Novak Tušar

Artificial SEI on metal lithium

Li-ion batteries are most promising portable storage devices and their energy density can be further improved by replacement of negative electrode by metallic lithium. The latter needs to be protected if we want to avoid formation of dendrites and constant passivation. Protection layers can be based on polymers or alloys.

Supervisor: prof. dr. Robert Dominko

If you are interested in one of the above themes, please submit an Expression of interest (CV and description of your research area) to e-mail address by 15.7.2017:

barbara.tisler@ki.si  or projektna.pisarna@ki.si

More information about the institute is available on www.ki.si