Expertise areas
Water splitting, Solar energy conversion, Hydrogen and oxygen evolution, Nanomaterials
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.
Designing novel water splitting electrocatalyst from transition metal chalcogenides
Research interests
CO2 electroreduction, fuel cells, superconducting nanostrutcures, supercapacitors, biosensors.
Research funding
- NSF DMR
- ACS PRF
- UM Research Board
- Center for Biomedical Research
- Center for Research on Energy & Environment
Research grants
- NSF DMR Designing chalcogenide based electrocatalysts for water splitting from
fundamental materials chemistry aspect through concerted
experimental and theoretical studies. - ACS PRF Investigating chalcogenide nanostructure arrays for oxygen reduction
reaction. - UM Research Board Investigating nanotube and nanorod arrays for efficient solar energy
conversion.