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Electrochemical CO2 Utilisation
CO2 Capture & Utilisation
CO2 Capture & Utilisation
CO2 Capture & Utilisation
CO2 Capture & Utilisation
Power production from combustion of fossil fuels releases CO2, which is mainly responsible for global warming and cause severe problems to both ecology and human beings. The rise in atmospheric CO2 levels must be slowed or reverted to avoid undesirable climate change. Materials capable of cost-effective CO2 conversion into chemicals and fuels would help in stabilizing the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gas. The potential products can be obtained with CO2 conversion are formic acid, methanol, CO and ethylene. At present there is no commercially viable process for the conversion of CO2 to useful chemicals and the current state-of-the-art materials are expensive, which limit commercial implementation. For example, although several materials are known for the electrochemical conversion of CO2, until now only precious metals such as Au and Ag could promote this process with Faradaic efficiency more than 80%. Because of the durability and poisoning effect many efficient catalysts are far beyond commercialization. We strategically focus on the synthesis of nanomaterials in various forms (metals, bimetals, alloys, intermetallic, core shell etc.) and study their efficiency in the photochemical, electrochemical and heterogeneous conversion of CO2 into fuel and chemicals. The reaction mechanism and kinteics are completely understood by a detailed electronic structure calculations. Our materials and methods are expected to have the potential to convert waste CO2 to produce gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and industrial chemicals.
Power production from combustion of fossil fuels releases CO2, which is mainly responsible for global warming and cause severe problems to both ecology and human beings. The rise in atmospheric CO2 levels must be slowed or reverted to avoid undesirable climate change. Materials capable of cost-effective CO2 conversion into chemicals and fuels would help in stabilizing the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gas. The potential products can be obtained with CO2 conversion are formic acid, methanol, CO and ethylene. At present there is no commercially viable process for the conversion of CO2 to useful chemicals and the current state-of-the-art materials are expensive, which limit commercial implementation. For example, although several materials are known for the electrochemical conversion of CO2, until now only precious metals such as Au and Ag could promote this process with Faradaic efficiency more than 80%. Because of the durability and poisoning effect many efficient catalysts are far beyond commercialization. We strategically focus on the synthesis of nanomaterials in various forms (metals, bimetals, alloys, intermetallic, core shell etc.) and study their efficiency in the photochemical, electrochemical and heterogeneous conversion of CO2 into fuel and chemicals. The reaction mechanism and kinteics are completely understood by a detailed electronic structure calculations. Our materials and methods are expected to have the potential to convert waste CO2 to produce gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and industrial chemicals.
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Solid State & Structural Chemistry
Intermetallics have found important applications in various areas such as structural materials in aircraft, superconductors in magnetic resonance imaging instruments, magnets in computer disk drives, thermoelectric materials and shape memory alloys. Intermetallic compounds are a combination of two or more metals with properties such low density, high specific yield strength (yield strength/density), high specific stiffness, good oxidation resistance and good creep resistance at high temperatures make them occupy an intermediate position between alloys and ceramics. Their crystal structure is different than their constituent elements and exhibit metallic behaviour with more localized covalent bonding.
The aim of our group is the synthesis of binary, ternary and Quaternary intermetallics by exploratory metal flux method. After establishing the crystal structure using single crystal X-ray diffraction, the synthesis will be scaled up using conventional techniques like arc-melting, high frequency induction furnace and ceramic methods. The compounds will be characterized XRD, SEM/EDX, TEM, IR, UV etc. Magnetic and transport properties of these compound will be measured. The group has succeeded in the synthesis of various new compounds (Yb5Ga2Sb6, Yb2AuGe3, YbCu4Ga8, Yb7Ni4InGe12 etc.) and various new structural types. A specific focus will be given to the compounds between Ce, Eu and Yb as they are expected to exhibit mixed valency, which may lead to interesting physical properties like heavy Fermion, Kondo, super conductivity, zero thermal expansion etc.
