Second Harmonic Generation characterizations of waste plastic solubility

Plastic recycling is a major challenge to combat environmental impact of human activity. IFPEn provides industrial solutions for ecological transition, devising and designing new processes such as plastic chemical recycling process. Quantitative data obtained on solubilization phenomena such as solubility kinetic and thermodynamic are essential to develop and optimize the industrial process. The objective of this PhD purpose is to study the plastic solubility with the non-linear optical technique Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) which consists of two photons having a specific frequency are combined to form one photon with the frequency doubled. Recently, the research team ONLI from ILM has proved that the SHG technique enables characterizing the molecular organization of liquids at the nanometric scale. In collaboration with the ONLI team, we will address the challenge of plastic solubility characterization of additivated waste plastic compounds. The polarization dependency combined with the Sum Frequency Generation, called SFG, would lead to the first time characterizing the size with a chemical selectivity of additive polymer solutions. This research work should result to non-linear optical device improvements, new knowledges in plastic solubilization as well as scientific community outreach from scientific papers published in international journals.

Keywords: Waste plastic recycling, Second Harmonic Generation, Polymer solubility,

• Academic supervisor    Prof. Pierre-François BREVET, ILM, ORCID : 0000-0002-9097-0187
• Doctoral School    ED052 PHAST, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1
• IFPEN supervisor    Dr Jérémie BARBIER, ORCID : 0000-0002-2101-0799
• PhD location    ILM, Lyon, France and IFPEN, Lyon, France  
• Duration and start date    3 years, starting in the fourth quarter 2024 (Novembre 4)
• Employer    IFPEN
• Academic requirements    University Master degree in Physics, Physical Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Analytical Chemistry
• Language requirements    English level B2 (CEFR)    

To apply, please send your cover letter and CV to the IFPEN supervisor indicated below.