M1/M2 Internship Sources and reactivity of volatile organic compounds at the ATOLL monitoring station

Laboratory: Center Energy and Environment

Supervisors: Sébastien DUSANTER, Alexandre TOMAS, Marina JAMAR

Workplace: IMT Nord Europe – Bourseul Campus at Douai (France)

Type of contract and duration: M1 or M2 Internship – 6 months

Context:

The public establishments belonging to IMT (Institut Mines-Télécom), are under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, IMT Nord Europe has three main objectives: to provide our students with ethically responsible engineering practices, enabling them to solve 21st century issues, carry out our R&D activities leading to outstanding innovations and support territorial development through innovation and entrepreneurship. Ideally positioned at the heart of Europe, 1 hour away from Paris, 30 min from Brussels and 1h30 from London, IMT Nord Europe has strong ambitions to become a main actor in the current industrial transitions, digital and environmental, by combining education and research on engineering and digital technologies.

Located on two main campuses dedicated to research and education in Douai and Lille, IMT Nord Europe offers research facilities of almost 20,000m² in the following areas:

•             Digital science,

•             Energy and Environment,

•             Materials and Processes.

For more details, visit the School’s website: www.imt-nord-europe.fr/en/

The internship is within the Centre Energy and Environment (EE) and the thematic axis Observations, Sources, and Atmospheric Physico-Chemical Processes (OSPA). The OSPA group conducts research on environmental and energy topics. The Atmospheric Sciences team (SAGE) focuses its research on topics related to air quality and the impact of human activities on the composition of indoor and outdoor air. The research projects are based on fundamental and applied research and aim to improve the understanding of the physicochemical processes involved in the generation, transport and transformation of gaseous and particulate pollutants.

The hydroxyl radical (OH) and peroxy radicals (HO2 and RO2), commonly referred to as ROx, are key species in atmospheric chemistry. OH reacts with most trace gases in the atmosphere, including volatile organic compounds, whose oxidation leads to the formation of HO2 and RO2, which in turn regenerate OH in the presence of nitric oxide. This radical cycle controls the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere and, consequently, affects numerous atmospheric processes such as the planet's radiative balance by influencing the lifetime of greenhouse gases (CH4, HCFCs, etc.). It also impacts air quality on a large geographic scale by modulating the formation of secondary pollutants (ozone, secondary organic aerosols, etc.). A detailed understanding of the ROx balance in the atmosphere, particularly their production, destruction, and interconversion mechanisms, is a fundamental challenge in atmospheric physico-chemistry.

Numerous studies published in the scientific literature have highlighted significant discrepancies between experimental field observations of ROx radicals and atmospheric model simulations. These discrepancies, observed in various environments such as urban, forested, or marine areas, reveal an incomplete understanding of the reaction mechanisms involving these radicals. The gaps identified in atmospheric models regarding ROx chemistry mainly concern organic peroxy radicals (RO2), as the chemistry of OH and HO2 radicals is relatively well understood.

In this internship, we propose to study the effect of water-vapor on the kinetics of RO2+RO2 reactions under temperature and pressure conditions representative of the atmosphere.

Objectives: The main objective of this internship will be to validate a new laboratory setup for studying gas-phase radical + radical reactions.

Activities:

The internship will be carried out as follows:

1-     Getting used with the experimental setup and analytical tools

First, the intern will be trained on using the experimental setup (flow tube) and the peroxy radical analyzer (PERCA: Peroxy Radical Chemical Amplifier). 

2-     Study of a reference chemical system

Next, a well-known reference chemical reaction, the HO2+HO2 reaction, will be studied to validate the experimental setup designed to investigate RO2+RO2 reactions. This step will involve measuring the rate coefficient for the HO2+HO2 reaction. Special attention will be given to conducting experiments under varying humidity conditions to evaluate the impact of humidity on this rate constant. The results will be compared with data available in the literature, which should enable validation of the experimental setup.  

3-     Study of the impact of humidity on peroxy radical reactions

Finally, experiments will be conducted to investigate the effect of humidity on the reaction kinetics of RO2 radicals such as C2H5O2 and HOC2H4O2. 

Required Profile:

This internship is intended for an M1 or M2 student with a strong background in chemical kinetics. Skills in analytical chemistry and atmospheric sciences will be a valuable asset. This work requires a high level of rigor as well as strong writing and communication skills.

Conditions:

The internship is expected to start between March and April 2025 for a duration of 6 months.

Information and application methods:

For any information on the missions, please contact:

Sébastien DUSANTER, Assistant Professor, sebastien.dusanter@imt-nord-europe.fr, 0327712623

Alexandre TOMAS, Professor, alexandre.tomas@imt-nord-europe.fr, 0327712651

Marina JAMAR, Engineer in instrumentation, marina.jamar@imt-nord-europe.fr, 0327712607

For any administrative information, please contact the Human Resources Department: jobs@imt-nord-europe.fr

Deadline: 02/03/2025