Post Doctorate Research Associate - MOF​/COF and Polymer Synthesis

Overview

At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.

Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Integrated Discovery Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.

The Energy and Environment Directorate delivers science and technology solutions for the nation’s biggest energy and environmental challenges. Our more than 1,700 staff support the Department of Energy (DOE), delivering on key DOE mission areas including: modernizing our nation’s power grid to maintain a reliable, affordable, secure, and resilient electricity delivery infrastructure; research, development, validation, and effective utilization of renewable energy and efficiency technologies that improve the affordability, reliability, resiliency, and security of the American energy system;

and resolving complex issues in nuclear science, energy, and environmental management.

The Energy Processes and Materials Division, part of the Energy and Environment Directorate, creates and delivers real world solutions that support the Department of Energy’s goals for national energy security. We deliver new technologies that connect fundamental science to applications in areas such as energy storage, advanced materials manufacturing, applied catalysis, advanced separations, biomass conversions, carbon capture and utilization, and hydrogen production and storage.

We employ a systems perspective that includes discovery, technology development, and scale-up as well as economic, regulatory, and market acceptance issues necessary for successful technology commercialization.

The Battery Materials & Systems Group within the Energy and Environment Directorate seeks an outstanding postdoctoral research scientist with a strong background in synthetic chemistry, materials science, and electrochemistry. This position is for a synthetic chemist or materials scientist with broad, hands‑on experience in the design, synthesis, and characterization of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and functional polymers. Experience applying these materials in energy storage applications is a plus.

The primary focus of this role is to drive innovative research within a growing team of scientists and engineers on the rational design and synthesis of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and functional polymers. The successful candidate will work collaboratively across interrelated projects, tuning building‑block chemistry, framework topology, pore environment, and functional groups to achieve targeted structures and properties such as ionic conductivity, selectivity, and stability.

Project work will include the synthesis and advanced characterization of framework materials and polymers (e.g., XRD, gas sorption/BET, NMR, FTIR, electron microscopy, and electrochemical methods), as well as systematic evaluation of their structure‑property relationships. The successful candidate will be responsible for materials development from molecular and monomer design through synthesis and characterization, with the opportunity to integrate promising materials into energy storage devices, in coordination with senior scientists and the project manager.

They will also prepare manuscripts for publication, present their work internally and externally at national/international conferences, and develop new ideas for funded research.

Minimum…