About the Project
The Department of Chemistry and Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change at the University of Bath are offering a fully-funded, 3.5 year studentship to start in March 2026. Subject to contract, this project will be in collaboration with Unigloves UK Ltd®, who, together with their parent company, are one of the world’s largest manufacturers and distributors of nitrile gloves.
Disposable nitrile gloves are widely used across healthcare, laboratories, manufacturing, and food-handling sectors – due to their chemical inertness and robustness. It is these useful application properties that make the gloves difficult to recycle in an environmentally and cost effective manner. The aim of this PhD is to address this and work on recycling strategies to facilitate chemical recycling.
This PhD project, jointly funded by industry and the Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change, aims to develop a scalable, closed-loop chemical recycling process for nitrile gloves based upon preliminary work undertaken at The Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST). Key objectives are to:
- Optimise catalytic degradation of the polymer into soluble oligomers.
- Investigate routes to repolymerise the oligomers to reform the polymers, closing the loop.
- Conduct preliminary techno-economic and sustainability assessments on scaled-up trials to evaluate commercial viability and environmental impact.
Environment and Development
You will benefit from working in the state-of-the-art interdisciplinary polymer chemistry labs at Bath (with leading experts Dr. Jon Husband and Professor Matthew Jones), with input and direction towards commercialization given by Unigloves®. The project offers training in polymer chemistry, catalysis, materials characterisation, and processing, alongside exposure to sustainability assessment, scale-up considerations, and industrial R&D.
You will be embedded within both the Department of Chemistry and the Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change, benefiting from interdisciplinary training and access to expertise in chemistry, life-cycle assessment, systems analysis, and chemical and mechanical engineering.
Project Keywords: applied chemistry; chemical engineering; industrial chemistry; inorganic chemistry; mechanical engineering; organic chemistry; polymer chemistry; polymers
Candidate Requirements:
Applicants should hold, or expect to receive, a First Class or Upper Second Class Honours degree (or the equivalent) in a relevant subject such as: Chemistry or related discipline. Prior experience in catalysis or polymer chemistry would be helpful but not essential - we value curiosity, rigor and desire to learn.
Non-UK applicants must meet our English language entry requirement.
Enquiries and Applications:
Informal enquiries are encouraged and should be directed to Dr Jon Husband jth67@bath.ac.uk and/or Prof. Matthew Jones mj205@bath.ac.uk.
Deadline: 11 January 2026
For more information and to apply visit https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/chemical-recycling-of-nitrile-gloves-for-a-circular-end-of-life-solution-for-single-use-ppe-waste/?p193313
