Areas of Interest
Solidification of Multicomponent Alloys
The phase formation under non-equilibrium conditions in concentrated alloys is a field that remains to be explored. Our research activity deals with understanding phase selection and morphological evolution through 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, and we study the 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 the science and technology to produce, store, and utilize hydrogen has emerged as an international research priority. We work on new catalytic materials for the 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. Ionic particles are characterized by strong Coulomb interactions between positive and negative ions. At nanosize, these Coulombic interactions get modified, leading to a change in behavior of the ionic particles. We use a top-down approach to prepare ionic nanoparticles to observe anomalous lattice expansion and insulating behavior at the nanoscale.
Graphene and Graphene–Metal Hybrids
Preparation of graphene and graphene–metal hybrids and their properties is deemed important for future applications of materials. Graphene is considered a miracle material for the 21st century. We use chemical synthesis routes to prepare and characterize them using electron microscopy, UV–Vis, and Raman spectroscopic techniques, and 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 has a concentration of roughly 20 atom% — multicomponent cocktails. We look at the processing and consolidation of HEAs using our 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.