Jobs › Argonne National Laboratory
Postdoctoral Appointee – Advanced Electrochemical Separations
Posted Jul 22, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026
Apply at Argonne National Laboratory
Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
About your past
Tell me about a reactor or cell you designed and built. What failed in the first version?
What they are checking: Hands-on prototyping experience and learning from design failures.
Tell me about a time you presented results at a conference that didn't fully support your hypothesis.
What they are checking: Honesty in communicating results, which matters for publications and reports.
What would you do
Your selectivity results don't match what the computational modeling team predicted. How do you work it out with them?
What they are checking: Ability to collaborate with modelers and treat disagreement as information, not blame.
Where do you see this work having the biggest impact, and which elements would you target first?
What they are checking: Whether they understand the purpose of energy-efficient separations, such as critical materials recovery.
About the work
How would you use cyclic voltammetry to screen deep eutectic solvent compositions for a target element?
What they are checking: Practical skill turning CV data into decisions about solvent choice and electrochemical accessibility.
What makes electrodeposition in a deep eutectic solvent harder than in an aqueous electrolyte, and how do you deal with it?
What they are checking: Understanding of viscosity, conductivity and speciation issues specific to DES media.
How would you characterize mass transfer in a rotating packed bed reactor under flow conditions?
What they are checking: Chemical engineering reasoning about mass transfer, which is central to the reactor's advantage.
Walk me through what EIS can tell you about an electrodeposition system, and a time it changed your interpretation.
What they are checking: Whether they use impedance spectroscopy meaningfully rather than just collecting spectra.
How do you decide whether the potentiostatic or galvanostatic mode is better for a separation experiment?
What they are checking: Understanding of how control mode affects selectivity and deposit quality.
What safety concerns do you consider when running electrochemical experiments with complex metal mixtures?
What they are checking: Awareness of chemical and electrical hazards in a national lab setting.
Practice this interview out loud.
Offer builds a real interview for this exact role at Argonne National Laboratory from your resume and this job description, asks the questions one at a time, and tells you what landed. The first one is free.
Practice this out loudThe full job description
As published by Argonne National Laboratory.