Overview
This internship at the Department of Plasma Physics and Technology at Masaryk University offers students the opportunity to take part in research on advanced materials, with a focus on high-entropy oxides (HEOs).
HEOs combine multiple metal elements into a single stable crystal lattice and exhibit exceptional electrochemical properties.
These materials are promising candidates for anodes in lithium-ion batteries due to their high capacity, excellent cycling stability, and minimal volume change during charging and discharging. Oxygen vacancies may play a key role in their performance by enhancing ionic conductivity and introducing additional redox-active sites. Their presence is often assessed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), particularly by attributing the O 1s peak at ~531–532 eV to vacancies. However, this interpretation has recently been questioned. The goal of this internship is to critically evaluate the validity of this approach using computational methods.
What will you work on?
- Introduction to the topic of high-entropy oxides and their modeling via ab initio methods
- Building atomic models of high-entropy oxides and calculating their properties, especially O 1s binding energies in spinel and rock-salt structures
- Studying the influence of the local atomic environment and nearby vacancies
- Critically evaluating the detection of oxygen vacancies using XPS
Our expectations:
- Interest in computational modeling and materials science
- Willingness to learn new methods (e.g., DFT, atomic-scale modeling)
- Basic skills in programming, scripting, or working with the command line are an advantage
- Possibility to work remotely for part of the internship
What do we offer?
- Introductory experience with ab initio materials simulations
- Flexible participation in research and the option to work remotely
- Expert guidance and mentoring
Join us and explore the world of advanced technologies!
