Solidification of Multicomponent Alloys

The phase formation under non-equilibrium condition in concentrated alloys is field that remains to be explored. Our research activity deals with understanding the phase selection and morphological evolution using the process of solidification.

Nanostructured Materials

The research focuses on phase transformation of binary and ternary alloy nanoparticles embedded in crystalline, quasicrystalline and amorphous matrices. Understanding the melting and solidification of alloy nanoparticles is a challenge. We are also working in the area of multicomponent nanoeutectic alloys. We also study melting and solidification of alloy (single and multiphase) free nanoparticles prepared by chemical synthesis routes. We also use cryo milling (milling at low temperature) to prepare different nanostructures.

Energy Materials

Hydrogen is seen by many as the energy carrier of the future and science and technology to produce, store and utilize hydrogen has emerged as an international research priority. We work on new catalytic materials for production and storage of hydrogen energy. Using metallurgical principles, we process novel catalysts in our lab and test them.

Size Effect of Ionic Nanoparticles

The research on ionic nanoparticles is new and expanding very fast. The ionic particles are characterized by strong Coulomb interactions between the positive and negative ions. At nanosize, the these Coulmbic interactions get modified leading to change in behavior of the ionic particles. We use top-down approach to prepare the ionic nanoparticle to see anomalous lattice expansion, insulating behavior at nanoscale.

Graphene and Graphene-metal Hybrids

Preparation of graphene and graphene-metal hybrids and their properties are deemed to be important for future applications of material. Graphene is considered as Miracle material for 21st century. We use chemical synthesis routes to prepare and characterize them by electron microscopes, UV-Vis and Raman spectroscopic techniques. We use ab initio calculations to explain the experimental findings.

High Entropy Alloys

High entropy alloys (HEA) are novel multicomponent alloys where each element in the alloy will have concentration of 20 atom%. They are multicomponent cocktails. We look at the processing and consolidation of HEAs using in house high energy ball mill and spark plasma sintering facilities. The formation and stability of these novel materials are extensively studied in our group.