Research Areas:

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Energy Materials

Batteries & Supercapacitors

Friction Stir Processing

Al and Ti based Metal Matrix Composites

EBSD and TEM

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC)

          Solid oxide fuel cell is a device that converts chemical energy to electrical energy. This is one of the most promising green technologies of energy generation. Three major components of an SOFC are electrolyte, anode and cathode. Stabilized zirconia and doped ceria are commonly used electrolyte materials and other materials like LaGaO₃, brownmillerite structures have been also explored as electrolyte. A cermet of Ni and yttria stabilized ziconia (YSZ), Ni-YSZ, is the most commonly used anode material having the required properties of an anode. LaMnO₃ doped with Sr (LSM) is the commonly used cathode.

          Our group is primarily working on the development of electrolyte materials for SOFCs. Systems like Scandia stabilized zirconia (SSZ) co-doped with rare earths, multiple doped ceria and and BaCeO₃ and BaZrO₃ based proton conductors have been investigated. We are also working towards understanding the degradation mechanism of SOFCs by single cell testing that will possibly be scaled up to stack level in future.

     
Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscope (EIS)    HR-TEM of GDC-BaCeO₃ nano composite

     
                YSZ sintered tape                                                   Ni-YSZ anode

Friction Stir Processing (FSP)
Friction stir processing has been emerging as a versatile tool for microstructure modification and grain refinement. FSP, which is based on the principle of friction stir welding (FSW), uses a non consumable cylindrical tool containing shoulder and pin that rotates at a desired rpm and is traversed into the material at a desired speed along a certain length to process it. We primarily study the microstructure-property correlation in this process and as such are involved in detailed investigations to understand the microstructure evolution during the process.

Schematic of FSP


EBSD image of FSPed Al.  A. Stir zone(SZ)  B. TMAZ  C. HAZ  D. Base metal (BM)