Research activities

Water splitting reactions by photochemical and electrochemical means is an important area of research related to renewable energy. Recently, we studied nanocomposites of carboxyl-functionalised MoS₂ nanotubes with PDDA-modified single-walled carbon nanotubes and Borocarbonitride nanotubes, solid solutions of MoS_xSe_(2-x)/MoSe_xTe_(2-x), Phosphorene MoS₂ and Phosphorene-MoSe₂, nanocomposites of PDDA functionalised RGO or BCN with MoS₂ and MoSe₂. We have also investigated the role of interlayer separation of the covalently cross-linked 2D nanosheets and its effect on hydrogen evolution. We have investigated various classes of 2D materials such as graphene, metal phosphochalcogenides for water splitting reactions and pnictogens for functionalization. We have also studied variations in electronic and optical properties of Cadmium phosphosulfides and their superior photo(electro)chemical HER activity. We also investigated the selective fabrication of β-phase of nickel sulfide (NiS) and vanadium oxide (VO_x) thin films, V₂O₃ thin films via Atomic layer deposition technique with their detail characterisation and ALD parameters dependent study.

Publications:

1. Pramoda, K., Devesh Chandra Binwal, and C. N. R. Rao. "Nanocomposites of MoS₂ nanoparticles with carboxyl-functionalized carbon nanotubes and borocarbonitrides nanosheets, and their electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction activity." Materials Research Bulletin 149 (2022): 111697.
2. Manjunath, Krishnappa, et al. "Metal–Insulator Transitions in Stable V₂O₃ Thin Films: Atomic Layer Deposition and Postdeposition Annealing Studies." physica status solidi (RRL)–Rapid Research Letters 15.6 (2021): 2000565.
3. Binwal, D. C., Pramoda, K., Zak, A., Kaur, M., Chithaiah, P., & Rao, C. N. R. (2021). Nanocomposites of 1D MoS₂ with Polymer-Functionalized Nanotubes of Carbon and Borocarbonitride, and Their HER Activity. ACS Applied Energy Materials, 4(3), 2339-2347.
4. Binwal, D. C., Kaur, M., Pramoda, K., & Rao, C. N. R. (2020). HER activity of nanosheets of 2D solid solutions of MoSe₂ with MoS₂ and MoTe₂. Bulletin of Materials Science, 43(1), 1-8.
5. Manjunath, K., Servottam, S., Soni, A., & Rao, C. N. R. (2020). A study of two-dimensional PbFCl and BaFCl. Bulletin of Materials Science, 43(1), 1-7.
6. Saraswat, Aditi, K. Pramoda, Koyendrila Debnath, Swaraj Servottam, Umesh V. Waghmare, and C. N. R. Rao. "Chemical Route to Twisted Graphene, Graphene Oxide and BN." Chemistry–A European Journal (2020).
7. Kaur, M., Chhetri, M., & Rao, C. N. R. (2020). Photoelectrochemical OER activity by employing BiVO₄ with manganese oxide co-catalysts. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 22(2), 811-817.
8. Roy, A., Singh, A., Aravindh, S. A., Servottam, S., Waghmare, U. V., & Rao, C. N. R. (2020). Effect of Mn²⁺ substitution on the structure, properties and HER activity of cadmium phosphochlorides. RSC Advances, 10(9), 5134-5145.

Research Highlights:

Nanocomposite of MoS₂/single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and MoS₂/ borocarbonitride (BC₆N) composites which exhibit enhanced electrocatalytic H₂ evolution performance with a low onset potential (-113 mV vs RHE) and a small Tafel slope (59 mV dec−1). The combination of MoS₂ nanoparticles with SWCNT or BCN appears to be a valuable finding with applications in catalysis reactions.