Synthesis and Characterization of Waterspliting Materials

Full Name: Asitha Udayanga Malikaramge

Research Area: Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Title of The Research:  Photon Upconversion as a Tool to Harvest Infrared Radiation for Direct Illumination in the Dark and to Fabricate Dye-sensitized Solar Cells to Generate Electricity Under Illumination as well as in the Dark.

Description: This is project which has been designed for direct application in two broad areas, namely, visible light generation from stray infrared radiation for illumination in the dark and electricity generation in the daytime as well as in the night by utilizing both dyes capable of absorbing visible radiation and generating visible radiation from upconverted infrared photons by photon upconverting materials embedded in solar cells. These devices will generate visible light without any cost in the first case and electricity by converting both visible and infrared radiation to electricity by upconverting infrared radiation to visible light. As such, illuminating houses in the night without any electricity or fuel is anticipated in the first case and generation of electricity from entire visible and infrared regions of the solar spectrum is anticipated in the second case.

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Full Name: Sivagowri  Shanmugaratnam

Research Area: Chemistry

Title of The Research: “Transition metal chalcogenide [MS₂] embedded TiO₂ nanocomposites for hydrogen production over extended solar irradiation”

Description: Depletion of fossil fuel is gaining more public attention and receiving more financial and legislative support. In addition, development in industrial and technological sectors results in severe environmental issues. Therefore, there is a need for us to find an alternative way to overcome these challenges. Harvesting solar energy using potential materials is of prime for their applications towards energy and environmental processes. My work will focus on studying the impact of incorporation of transition metal chalcogenide on the active TiO₂ nano composites for hydrogen production over extended solar irradiation.

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