Energy Group

Lithium Ion Batteries: Depletion of non-renewable sources like oil has encouraged the automobile industry to explore alternative energy sources with no CO2 emissions. Li-ion batteries proved to be the best fit for such an alternative clean energy source which has already been developed by several automakers as hybrid electric vehicles. It is also currently the main power source for most of the portable electronics like cell phones, laptops and other communication devices. In our group, we are currently focussing on developing novel anode materials comprising of heterostructures and nanocomposites of Si/C/CNTs systems to achieve higher capacities, good capacity retention and high rate capability

Fuel Cells: Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) are of interest as suitable power sources for consumerelectronic devices as well as remote and auxiliary power units for transportation. The main advantage of DMFC is the use of liquid methanol rather than gaseous hydrogen as the operating fuel. We havedemonstrated that the novel sol-gel complexation based chemical process or the complexed sol-gel (CSG) process, is an attractive route for synthesizing phase pure Pt(Ru,Os) solid solution catalyst possessing a high specific surface area with excellent catalytic activity.

Supercapacitors: Work on supercapacitors aims at increasing both energy density and power density. Nanostructured nitrides have been shown to have promising capacitance in alkaline media. Current work in our focuses on doping to stabilize performance and use of non-aqueous electrolytes to increase energy density. Carbon based architectures are also being explored to increase rate capability

Electrolysis: Driving global energy into a sustainable path is our focus and hence the fuel hydrogen. A hydrogen based energy system will be benign for delivering high quality energy services in an efficient, clean and safe manner thus, trying to achieve our sustainability goals. Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) water electrolyzers are an efficient way to produce carbon free hydrogen. Novel dimensionally stable anodes (DSA) electrodes are being synthesized for the same.

Bio Group

The vision of this ERC is to revolutionize metallic biomaterials and technologies to create life changing devices. This will lead to engineered systems that will interface with the human body to prolong and improve quality of life, coupled with the development of a vibrant, diverse workforce well-prepared for the multidisciplinary and global challenges and opportunities of the new millennium. The fields of our major interest are as follows:

(i). Craniofacial and Orthopedic Applications: The goal is to engineer a logical and clinically relevant option that could regenerate mineralized tissue (bone/tooth) formation utilizing a unique combination of evolutionary load-bearing biodegradable materials (metals), growth factors and cell therapy.

(ii). Cardiovascular Devices: The aim of this work is to develop biodegradable metal based stents for expansion of coronary and pediatric pulmonary arteries, intracranial aneurysm filling coils, and devices to fill atrial septal defects and patent foramen ovale.

(iii). Responsive Biosensors for Implants: Development of a new class of multifunctional biocompatible materials and devices capable of both; fostering cell growth between organic and inorganic materials; and sensing biochemical and physical phenomena such as wear at the synthetic-biological interface.