Full description

Human activities, in particular industrial processing, are responsible for significant gas pollution, which has harmful effects on the ecosystem and is causing climate change. The main polluting gases are SOx, NOx, and volatile organic compounds, which mostly originates from the extraction and processing of oil and coal. In order to mitigate this pollution, numerous physical and chemical techniques have been developed, to either separate or transform pollutants: methods such as water absorption, solid absorption, or membrane separation. However, these different methods often involve significant energy consumption, either to ensure the effectiveness of the treatment or to regenerate the sorbent material, and can lead to secondary pollution through the production of solid or liquid waste.

In this context, the use of ionizing radiation has been proposed to be a low impact treatment of gas pollutants. Exposure of matter to ionizing radiation generates the formation of free radicals, which are highly reactive species that participate in a cascade of chemical reactions and can ultimately alter the composition of the irradiated matter. These radiolytic phenomena, which can be problematic when affecting biological organisms in an uncontrolled manner, can conversely be exploited in gas treatment if used in a controlled way. The use of ionizing radiation in the mitigation of gas pollution has been considered for about 20 years, but is now attracting growing interest due to our ability to develop less demanding radiation sources.

This master thesis investigates the effects of ionizing radiation (electron beams) on various gas compositions. The project examines decomposition mechanisms of pollutant gases under controlled irradiation conditions, in an electron microscope. Experimental work will involve irradiation cell and gas line development, electron dose quantification and optimization of the effect of the reactor material. Gas composition after irradiation will be characterized, either online by residual gas analysis (RGA) directly after irradiation, or ex situ using the various equipment available on the SUITABL platform of the LIONS laboratory.

Location

CEA Saclay, (91) Essonne, France

Internship conditions

• Internship duration: 6 months
• Level of study: Bac+5
• Training: Master 2
• Continuation in PhD thesis: No
• Application deadline: 30 novembre 2025

Useful methods and technics: Electron microscopy, gas handling, microfabrication/microfluidics, gas analysis (RGA, µ-GC).
Instrumental and experimental skills, as well as high-quality reporting are required.

Computer languages and software: Standard softwares – Word, Excel.

Supervisor

Jean-Philippe RENAULT ; Corinne CHEVALLARD
Phone: +33 1 69 08 15 50 ; +33 1 69 08 54 89
Email: ;

Head of the laboratory NIMBE / LIONS

Antoine THILL; ; Tél. : +33 1 69 08 99 82

Full description

The automation of chemical synthesis assisted by artificial intelligence opens new prospects for accelerated discovery of functional materials. However, the validity of these approaches compared to conventional methods remains to be established, particularly for the synthesis of nanostructured oxides intended for CO₂ capture and sequestration.

The internship addresses two complementary scientific questions:

• Methodological validation: Determine whether robotic synthesis produces materials equivalent to those obtained by conventional routes, or whether automation generates specific synthesis pathways with distinct properties
• Parameter space exploration: Systematically explore the influence of multiple parameters (oxide types, nanostructuring agents, injection protocols) to identify materials exceeding current CO₂ capture performance

The intern will implement an experimental protocol combining:

• Solution-based syntheses, both automated (Opentrons Flex robot) and manual for comparison
• Structural characterization by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS, laboratory and synchrotron)
• Adsorption property measurements (BET, CO₂ capture/release) in collaboration with ENSTA
• Programming for robot control and data analysis

This high-throughput approach will enable exploration of a parameter space inaccessible by conventional methods.

Experimental skills developed:

• Oxide synthesis in solution (conventional and robotic methods)
• Advanced characterization techniques (SAXS, physisorption, gas adsorption)
• Use of automated equipment and associated programming

Methodological skills developed:

• High-throughput experiment design
• Critical analysis of complex datasets
• Rigorous scientific validation approach

The internship also offers the opportunity to work with advanced research equipment (synchrotron) and develop expertise at the interface between materials chemistry and computational methods.

The internship will take place within a 4-person team working on this topic, in a laboratory of approximately 30 researchers. The intern will have access to the following equipment:

• Opentrons Flex synthesis robot
• Laboratory X-ray scattering and synchrotron beamtime
• Chemistry laboratory for synthesis and preparations
• Gas characterization platform (CO₂ capture/release, BET)

Location

CEA Saclay, (91) Essonne, France

Internship conditions

• Internship duration: 6 months
• Level of study: Bac+5
• Training: Master 2
• Continuation in PhD thesis: Yes
• Application deadline: 2 février 2026

Supervisor

David Carrière
Phone: +33 1 69 08 54 89
Email :

Head of the laboratory NIMBE / LIONS

Antoine Thill
Phone: +33 1 69 08 99 82

Full description

The production of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) clinker accounts for up to 8% of global CO2 emissions. Approximately 40% of this CO2 comes from the energy expended by heating the raw limestone and clays needed to produce the clinker, while the remaining 60% is released from the carbonates trapped within the limestone. Unfortunately, only a small fraction of this released CO2 is re-captured when cements are hardened through standard hydration processes. To reduce net CO2 emissions, a growing number of researchers and start-up companies (e.g., CarbonCure, Fortera) are working to cure cements through a combination of hydration and carbonation to re-capture released CO2. However, the carbonation of cements is a poorly understood phenomenon that can proceed through complex multi-step pathways.
Due to its density, hardness, and opacity, cement setting processes are extraordinarily difficult to study. To overcome this challenge, our lab recently developed a cement “microreactor” that enables real-time analysis of cement curing (Figure) and used it to study the evolving structure of cements using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The goal of this internship is to adapt the microreactor for use on the new DIADEM FastNano automated small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) platform. In addition to obtaining structural information by XRD, SAXS will enable us to uncover the evolving porosity of cements during early curing stages, which is crucial to CO2 transport and mechanical strength. The intern will help us to develop microreactor hardware for performing in situ SAXS analysis and accompanying scripts for the automated collection and treatment of SAXS data.

Location

CEA Saclay, (91) Essonne, France

Internship conditions

• Internship duration: 6 months
• Level of study: Bac+5
• Training: Master 2
• Continuation in PhD thesis: Yes
• Application deadline: 2 février 2026

Useful methods and technics:
SAXS/WAXS, XRD, 3D printing, computer-aided design

Computer languages and software:
Python, pySAXS

Supervisor

Mark Levenstein
Phone: 01 69 08 57 34
Email :

Head of the laboratory NIMBE / LIONS

Antoine Thill