PhD/Postdoc Opportunity: Fundamental Insights into In-Situ Degradation of Battery Electrodes (Germany)

Why this project matters

Modern lithium-ion and solid-state batteries fail not only from bulk fatigue but also through subtle, interfacial changes: redox-driven reconstruction, gas evolution, SEI growth, and stress-assisted cracking. Capturing those processes as they happen is crucial for designing longer-lived, recyclable cells. This role puts you at that frontier—linking atomic-scale observations to mechanistic models that guide materials choices and operating windows. The project specifically targets mechanistic insights into ion-transport-mediated surface reactions and interface migration during solid-state electrochemistry and recycling, using in-situ instrumentation to drive and monitor reactions under realistic stimuli.

Join a high-impact project decoding how battery electrodes degrade under in-situ operating conditions. A PhD/Postdoc role at the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials (Düsseldorf) blends advanced TEM/operando methods with theory to reveal mechanisms that limit performance and enable longer-lasting, recyclable batteries.

What you will do

You will join the Atomic Scale Dynamics of Sustainable Materials group and lead in-situ experimentation supported by analysis and interpretation:

• • Apply electrical bias—and where relevant temperature and reactive gases—to electrode materials using gas-cell holders to provoke and probe material transformations under controlled environments.
  • Use advanced in-situ SEM/TEM to quantify interface migration, nucleation, and phase transformations in real time.
  • Develop theoretical interpretations to explain the underlying mechanisms and
    to guide modification pathways (e.g., coatings, dopants, or process parameters) that mitigate degradation.
  • Publish in peer-reviewed venues and present at international conferences; contribute to the group’s collaborative methods culture.

These responsibilities are intentionally balanced across operando methods, quantitative analysis, and mechanism-driven modeling, ensuring your work translates from observation to actionable design rules.

What you need to bring

• • Background: Master’s (for PhD track) or PhD (for Postdoc) in Materials Science, Materials Chemistry, Materials Physics, or closely related fields.
  • Core skill: Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) hands-on experience is mandatory; prior TEM-based in-situ operation is a strong plus.
  • Foundations: Solid grasp of thermodynamics and electrochemistry of materials, with the ability to connect microstructure to electrochemical behavior.
  • Language: Excellent English (spoken and written); it’s the institute’s working language.

Who thrives here? Curious experimentalists who enjoy building and iterating operando setups, quantifying kinetics and morphology changes, and then closing the loop with mechanism-aware hypotheses that can be tested again in the microscope.

Training environment and supervision

You’ll work in a stimulating, collaborative international environment with world-class microscopy facilities and a culture that values open methods, reproducible workflows, and cross-lab exchange. The appointment length—~3 years for PhD and ~2 years for Postdoc—matches program structures and encourages timely, focused progress supported by regular supervision.

Alongside local expertise, the broader Max Planck ecosystem around sustainable materials and energy provides complementary theory

and data workflows, offering opportunities to link in-situ observations with modeling and design, and to align with initiatives that accelerate discovery.

Techniques you’ll likely use (and develop)

• • Gas-cell in-situ TEM/SEM: Apply potential, temperature, and controlled atmospheres to observe reaction pathways under operating conditions.
  • Interface tracking: Quantify migration, coarsening, and phase boundary kinetics with high temporal resolution.
  • Correlative analysis: Integrate operando microscopy with complementary post-mortem or ex-situ tools as needed (e.g., site-specific FIB prep, spectroscopy) to validate mechanisms. Context from institute battery-materials work.
  • Mechanism-guided interpretation: Use thermodynamic/electrochemical reasoning to map observed transformations to driving forces and suggest mitigation strategies.

Example scientific questions

• • How do ion transport and electric fields couple at buried interfaces to trigger migration and reconstruction during cycling?
  • Under what gas/temperature/bias conditions do interphase layers form, and how do they evolve?
  • Which coatings or dopants stabilize interfaces without hindering kinetics, and how can we verify this in situ?
    These are illustrative; the project’s explicit remit is to derive new mechanistic insight that informs longer-life, safer, and more recyclable battery designs.

Application package and how to apply

Prepare the following and submit via the online application link on the official posting: