Dr. RAMA KRISHNA CHAVA
Research Professor
Photocatalytic Water Splitting
Semiconductor based photocatalytic water splitting to produce hydrogen (H2) using sunlight is one of the most promising and sustainable strategies to solve environmental pollution issue, climate change and global fossil fuel depletion. One dimensional CdS nanorods (1D CdS NRs) have gained much more attention due to
their strong light absorption and scattering properties, larger specific surface area, high length-to-diameter ratios and direct pathways of electron transport along the 1D axis to avoid charge carrier recombination. However, there are several problems such as photocorrosion and rapid photogenerated electron–hole recombination which limit the photocatalytic H2 evolution activity of CdS NRs. We are designing the core–shell heterostructures which is an important approach to prevent photocorrosion and also beneficial to facilitate electron–hole transfer, thus inhibiting the formation of recombination centers.
Ag based ternary nanocomposite system for visible photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction
We attempted to design Ag3VO4-Ag-Ag2S ternary nanocomposite system for visible photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The obtained nanocomposite system can significantly extend the visible light absorption to the higher wavelengths region and increase the separation of photoexcited electron-hole pairs by multistep transfer, leading to the enhanced HER activity.
Hydrogen evolution reaction on 1D-0D core-shell Heteronanostructures
Here, we fabricated the CdS–SnS2 1D nanorod-0D quantum dot core–shell heteronanostructures to realize the efficient charge separation efficiency and thereby the improved H2 evolution reactions
Modification of 2D Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanosheets with Metal and Metal Oxide Nanocomponents
In this work we have developed a g-C3N4-Au-In2O3 (CN-Au-IO) ternary photocatalytic system for H2 evolution reaction. The designed material effectively separated the photogenerated electrons and holes for efficient photocatalytic H2 evolution activity.
Fabrication of CdS-Au/MoS2 core-shell hierarchical nanostructures
We reported a novel and effective approach to fabricate the CdS-MoS2 core-shell hierarchical heteronanostructures (CSHNSs) through gold (Au) nanoparticles (NPs) in which Au NPs functionalized CdS NRs are coated with few layered MoS2 nanosheets (CdS-Au/MoS2). The obtained CSHNS ensures the transfer of photogenerated electrons from the CdS NR not only to the Au metal surface but also to the grown MoS2 nanosheets, promoting the electron-hole separation effectively.
Au@In2O3 core@shell NPs for hydrogen gas sensing devices
The superiority of such Au@In2O3 core–shell NPs on H2 gas sensing was investigated by comparing the sensing performance of Au@In2O3 with that of In2O3 NPs. In addition to this, the sensing mechanism behind the Au@In2O3 core–shell nanostructures toward H2 gas has also been discussed in detail.