Current research projects

• Designing New Catalysts for Water Splitting Reaction and Efficient Solar-to-Fuel Energy Convertion Water splitting is perhaps one of the most lucrative methods for
  production of sustainable energy from carbon-neutral sources without
  depletion of natural reserves of the earth including fossil fuels.
  However, the need for precious metal based catalysts to facilitate
  water splitting reaction is one of the major bottlenecks that is
  restricting the widespread growth of this otherwise extremely
  promising technology. In our lab we are focusing on designing
  efficient water splitting catalysts by focusing on understanding the
  chemistry behind this catalytic reaction and accordingly optimizing
  the material properties of the catalytic compounds. Accordingly we
  have identified a very efficient family of catalysts based on earth-
  abundant non-precious elements such as Ni, Co, Fe, Mn, Cu, Se, and Te
  which show high catalytic activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER)
  and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) - the two half-cell reactions for
  water splitting.
• Patterned Growth of Nanowires and Nanotubes Arrays for Functional Devices One of the major challenges in this area is (i) to control the
  morphology in a pre-determined way; and (ii) post-synthesis
  fabrication of the nanowires/nanotubes. In this project we are trying
  to address both these issues in a very methodical way. The main aim
  of this project is to formulate the growth of nanowires/nanotubes on
  defined regions of the modified substrate. The growth centers on the
  substrate are defined by various techniques, including lithographic
  processes, masked sputtering etc.The nanowire-substrate hybrid will
  have varied functionality and applicability depending on the choice of
  the substrate and nanowire composition. For example, semiconductor
  nanowires grown between metal electrodes will have direct
  application in sensorial devices, in solar cells, photovoltaic devices etc.
  Some other fundamental phenomenon, like proximity induced
  superconductivity can also be studied in assemblies of
  semiconducting nanowires grown between superconductor blocks.
• Superconducting Nanostructures The field of superconductivity has continued to attract the attention of
  the materials scientists over the last century due to its novel
  phenomenon and immense applications. The nanostructured
  superconductors add yet another dimension to this ever-growing field.
  The dependence of superconducting properties on the dimension and
  morphology of the material holds the key to improve the
  understanding of this novel phenomenon and widen their application
  range. In the Nath group, we exploit various nanomaterial synthesis
  technique like high temperature CVD, solid-state route, solvothermal,
  electrodeposition and solution-based wet chemistry, to grow
  superconducting nanostructures. Recently our focus has been on the
  family of Fe-based superconductors which has rejuvenated the area of
  superconductivity. Through our continuous efforts we have been
  successful in making carbon encapsulated FeSe nanoneedles which
  show a superconducting Tc of 8K. We have shown that confining the
  material dimension in the nanometer regime actually leads to a lattice
  contraction which might be very beneficial to these Fe-based
  superconductors.

Publications

Publications from Scholars' Mine

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