Phd in Chemistry - Catalysis and Synthesis

University of St Andrews

PhD (Doctorate): a research-based degree, normally of three to four years duration. You will engage in a full-time research project and write a thesis of no more than 80,000 words and undergo an oral examination. The School of Chemistry at St Andrews has a thriving PhD community with around 150 PhD students studying here at any one time. Each student’s PhD experience – from their project to their funding. The School values its PhD community and contributes a major component of its own income to funding PhD positions in Chemistry. This funding is assigned to academics directly, and so it is always worth making an application.The challenge to discover novel and efficient ways to construct chemical bonds has catalysis and synthesis at its centre. Catalysis provides efficient industrial processes that minimise energy, waste and harmful by-products, and has revolutionised the way the products we depend on as a society are made, impacting on healthcare (pharmaceuticals, imaging), food security (herbicides, pesticides), and energy conversion and harvesting (materials, catalysts). Research in this theme covers all aspects of catalysis and synthesis across a broad range of scales. Interests range from manipulating single chemical bonds for the preparation of specific molecules, through to manipulation of nanoparticles and supramolecular compounds, to the preparation of multi-layered materials. EaStCHEM’s aims range from making bonds and materials in entirely new ways to making larger scale processes more efficient. Much of this activity relies upon an in-depth understanding of how molecules behave, so EaStCHEM also study the physical, spectroscopic, and chemical properties of molecules as well as understanding reaction mechanisms and kinetics.

Chemistry