Research Interest
- Electrochemical and Reaction Engineering
- Sustainable Energy and Environment
- Electro Catalysis, Fuel Cells and Photoelectrochemical Systems
- Static and Dynamical Morphology of Nanostructures, Interfaces and Functional Materials
- Transport Phenomena in Chemically and Electrochemically Reactive Systems
Education
- B.Tech. (Chemical and Electrochemical Engineering) - Central Electrochemical Research Institute, 1996
- M.S. (Biophysical Chemistry) - Indian Institute of Science, 1999
- Ph.D. (Physical Chemistry) - University of Utah, 2005
- Post Doctoral Fellow (Heterogeneous catalysis) - University of California, Santa Barbara(2005-2008)
Research Overview
The contemporary requirement of obtaining sustainable amounts of energy in an environmentally acceptable manner provides
a unique challenge and hence, great opportunity for chemical engineers and scientists. The research focus of our group is
on the elucidation of physico-chemical principles which aid in the design and fabrication of materials and devices that are
useful in converting various forms of energy in an environmentally sustainable manner. Elucidation of these underlying principles
often involves a semi-quantitative description of phenomena that span a wide range of length and time scales. In this context,
experimental and computational analysis is made using a wide variety of tools like reactivity trends in catalytic reactors,
current-voltage characteristics, measurement of electrochemical response to the solar spectrum, characterization by chemical
and electrochemical spectroscopy, quantum chemical density functional theory, molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo methods and continuum
transport equations. Most of research projects involve an integrated experimental and phenomenological analysis as such an approach
is often imperative in addressing complex energy conversion and storage systems.
Publications
- Rashmi, Maurya D. Gyanprakash, Monika Gadhewal, Raj Ganesh S. Pala, Sri Sivakumar, Deconvoluting Photoelectrochemical Activity in Monoclinic–Scheelite BiVO4 Facet Selected Thin Films , The Journal of Physical Chemistry C , 126, 38, 16477–16491 (2022).
- A. K. Ummireddi, S. K. Sharma, Raj Ganesh S. Pala., Tetraethylammonium Cation Tuned Electrochemical CO2 Reduction and Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Activities on Transition Metals (Cu, Ag, Ni, and Fe), Journal of Catalysis, 406, 213 (2022).
- S. Saha, K. Kishor, Raj Ganesh S. Pala, Climbing up the volcano through support-electrocatalyst interaction in electrodeposited thin metal oxides for oxygen evolution reactions, Catalyst Science Technology, 11, 4342 (2021).
- P. K. Gupta, A. Bhandari, J. Bhattacharya, Raj Ganesh S. Pala, Higher Voltage, Wider Voltage Plateau, Longer Cycle Life, and Faster Kinetics via Thermally Modulated Intergrowth Structure of Ramsdellite and Pyrolusite MnO2 for Lithium-Ion Battery Cathodes, Journal of Power Sources, 450, 227619 (2020).
- Arti Sahu, Sri Sivakumar, Raj Ganesh Pala, Selective Mesitylene Oxidative Coupling Reaction by Metastructured Electrocatalyst Comprised of Carbonaceous Scaffold Coated with Pd Derived from Zeolitic Imidazole Framework, Catalysis Letters, 151, 685 (2020).
- R. Khan, S. Sivakumar and Raj Ganesh S. Pala, J. Phys. Chem. C, Coherency and Lattice Strain Critically Constrains Electron-Hole Separation in Isomaterial and Heteromaterial Type-II Heterostructures, Inside cover feature, 123, 28620 (2019).
