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Position

Laboratory / Department

Institution

Period

6.

Visiting Researcher

Karlsruhe, BW, Germany

Energy Storage Systems Group,

Institute of Nanotechnology (INT)

Group Leader: Prof. Maximilian Fichtner

           Advisor: Dr. Zhirong Zhao-Karger

7.

  • Graduate Research Assistant
     

  • Lab Manager
    (Ad-hoc)

  • Battery Technology Lab

Chicago, IL, United States

  • December 2015 - July 2020

  • May 2016 - July 2020

RevPic.JPG

Schematic of a Mg-metal battery with an intercalation cathode.

R. Deivanayagam et al. Energy Storage Materials 21 (2019) 136-153

Image © 2019, Elsevier. (Used with permission from publisher)

Ph.D. work at NanoEngineering Lab

  • Synthesizing composite polymer electrolytes for application in safe, highly cyclable solid-state Li-metal and Mg-metal batteries

  • Synthesizing and evaluating the performance of transition metal oxide materials and sulfur-carbon composites as cathodes in solid-state Li-metal and Mg-metal batteries
     

Managerial responsibilities at Battery Technology Lab

  • Developing user manuals, experiment protocols, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for glovebox and other lab equipment meant for materials synthesis, electrode fabrication, cell assembly, and electrochemical analyses

  • Maintaining lab equipment by monitoring day-to-day usage, developing troubleshooting procedures, ensuring staff compliance, arranging equipment service, repair, and replacement

  • Training new users, determining their readiness for unsupervised handling of equipment, and recommending authorization for lab access

  • Preparing annual budgets, and maintaining inventories of equipment and consumables

Advisor: Prof. Reza Shahbazian-Yassar,

               Principal Investigator, NanoEngineering Lab, UIC

Master's Thesis in Physics (Degree major)

Nanostructured electrodes for lithium-ion & sodium-ion batteries

  • Synthesized materials of different classes and morphologies viz., transition metal oxides, their carbon composites, and intermetallic alloys; Characterized and tested their performance as electrodes for lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries

  • Developed 3-dimensional array of intermetallic Ni-Sn nanorods, and tested their electrochemical performance for their potential application as sodium-ion battery electrodes

 

Thesis Advisor:  Prof. M. M. Shaijumon
                             Principal Investigator, Nanomaterials & Energy Devices Lab
                             School of Physics, IISER Thiruvananthapuram

  • Graduate Researcher
     

  • Master's Thesis 
    Student​​

  • June 2014 - May 2015

5.

SEM image of Ni-Sn intermetallic nanorods (Top view)

Image © IISER Thiruvananthapuram, 2014.

  • June - November 2015

Thiruvananthapuram, India

May - August 2019  

Semester research project in Chemistry (Degree minor)

Post-synthetic composition tuning of quantum dots

  • Synthesized liquid-phase quantum dots (QDs) with different crystal structures by tuning standard reaction protocols; Carried out sequential, reversible cation-exchange reactions and analyzed the resultant crystal structures to investigate the possible presence of memory effects

 

             Advisor: Prof. K. George Thomas
                            Principal Investigator, Photosciences & Nanomaterials Group

                            School of Chemistry, IISER Thiruvananthapuram

4.

Student Researcher

January - May 2014

 (1 semester)

TEM image of cadmium selenide quantum dots.

Image © IISER, NIIST Thiruvananthapuram, 2014.

Thiruvananthapuram, India

Summer Research Fellow,

Science Academies' Fellowship

3.

July & December 2013

Summer Research Project

Propagation of coronal mass ejections of the 24th solar cycle in the inter-planetary medium

  • Obtained wind-speed data from NASA's LASCO aboard SOHO, and WIND satellites, and modelled the arrival times and speeds of interplanetary coronal mass ejections for the current solar cycle

 

Project Guide: Prof. P. K. Manoharan, 

                         Head, Radio Astronomy Centre, NCRA-TIFR

Summer Research Project

Two-photon transtions in rubidium.

  • Worked on Doppler-free LASER Spectroscopy: Two-photon experiment. After achieving high-precision LASER alignments, the line-widths of hyperfine components of the two-photon transitions in rubidium were measured

  • Gained hands-on experience in optic workbench, LASER alignment, optical electronics, piezo-electric controller circuits

 

Project Guide: Prof. Vasant Natarajan, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

2.

May - June 2013

Summer Intern

Summer Research Project

Fabrication of organic solar cell

  • Fabricated organic solar cells using ready-made indium/tin oxide substrates, and PEDOT:PSS electrodes. Gained hands-on experience on experimental techniques including spin-coating, device fabrication and testing

Project Guide: Prof. P. Predeep, Department of Physics, NIT Calicut.

May - June 2011

Summer Intern

1.

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