The “Nanoporous Films and Particles” (NFP) research group is led by Prof. Jesús Santamaría and located at the Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón (INMA), which is part of Universidad de Zaragoza and the Spanish Research Council (CSIC). INMA is a multidisciplinary research center devoted to Nanoscience, Nanotechnology and Advanced Functional Materials. The activities of the NFP group focus on four research areas: 1) Nanomaterials synthesis, 2) Nanomaterials for energy, environment and security, 3) Novel catalysts and contactors and 4) Nanomedicine. There are strong links and interactions among researchers involved in the different areas.

In the last 5 years, the group has led more than 20 research projects (3 European projects) leading to the signature of 5 patents (one in exploitation), the publication of 241 articles in high impact indexed journals, and the participation in 243 conferences (154 international).

The group has delivered 146 oral presentations (47 invited) and has organized 3 international conferences. 19 doctoral theses have been defended (with maximum qualification) 10 final degree theses and 23 final master theses, all of them with very high qualifications.

Avanzare (http://www.avanzarematerials.com/es/), Ingeobras (http://ingeobras.com/), Robert Dominko (NIC), Elżbieta Frąckowiak (PUT).

Additionally, the NFP group has collaboration with several national and international research groups and companies. These collaborations are demonstrated by the participation in a great number of national and international projects, the signature of several private contacts, and the activities organized in the framework of the Nanotechnology SAMCA chair.

A research secondment for 6 months is offered at AVANZARE under Dr. Julio Gomez supervision. The postdoctoral researcher will have the opportunity of working in an industrial environment and transfer the results obtained in research laboratories to such environment with access to their complete facilities (3.500 m2) of labs and pilot plant. Dr. Julio Gómez has experience in the development of nanomaterials and their commercial applications in different sectors. His experience can give a unique perspective to the postdoctoral researcher on the development of materials at industrial level and from a commercial point of view, focusing on feasibility and commercial revenue, broadening the academic vision, usually focusing on fancy properties.

The research line that the postdoctoral researcher would work on is 2) Nanomaterials for energy, environment and security, that focuses on the development of nanomaterials for different applications: catalysis, photocatalysis, solar cells, sensors, etc. The incoming researcher will have access to laboratory space, standard laboratory facilities, advanced nanomaterial synthesis facilities and characterization techniques.

More specifically: equipment for synthesis of materials and coating of surfaces including stoves, autoclaves and ovens for calcination under different atmospheres, spin-coaters, dip coater, glove box, microfluidic system for nanoparticles synthesis and centrifuges. Characterization equipment: thermogravimetric analysis, dynamic light scattering and zeta potential measurements, microwave plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy, UV-VIS-NIR absorption/reflectance (200-2200 nm) and gas adsorption equipment for textural properties. Moreover, NFP group belongs to the Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón (INMA), a multidisciplinary research centre devoted to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. INMA hosts the National Advanced Microscopy Laboratory (http://lma.unizar.es/) a facility with several advanced instruments including two UHRTEM Titan microscopes with sub-angstrom resolution) and state-of-the-art characterization facilities (XRD-SAXS, SEM, AFM, XPS and UPS). Raman spectroscopy (lasers: 488nm, 532nm, 633 and 785nm), FTIR with ATR accessory. Clean room class 100 facilities equipped with elements for lithography processes and metal evaporator machine, profilolemeter, CVD and RIE equipment. There are four manufacturing techniques for thin-film growth: pulsed laser ablation (PLD), sputtering, epitaxial growth by molecular beam techniques (MBE) and chemical vapor deposition assisted by plasma (PECVD) and the CESAR High Performance Computing cluster to the ICTS RES.