Physics Colloquium Tuesday September 5th

Dear all,

The Department of Physics Cordially Invite you to the Following Colloquium:

Talk 1:

Facile Synthesis of Photoanodic Materials for Energy Harvesting Applications

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Adil Mansoor

Dept. of Chemistry, School of Natural Science, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan

Date: Tuesday September 5th 2023, 11:00 am

Location: DKF, Faculty of Science

Abstract:

The inorganic materials namely, ceramics are widely used in ferroelectric, pyroelectric, piezoelectric, capacitors for energy storage, current blocking, electrical noise-filtering, and high-frequency tuning devices, self-regulating electric heating systems, dynamic random access memories, nonvolatile memories and positive-temperature-coefficient resistors, sensors, actuators, and sound and ultrasound transducer and electro-optical devices. The efficiency of these devices critically depends on the imperfection of the crystalline structure and the bulk and surface properties of the thin films. These ceramics, especially mixed metal oxides have been prepared using various techniques, such as pulsed laser deposition, chemical vapor deposition, the sol–gel method, coprecipitation, and hydrothermal synthesis, besides traditional solid-state reactions of mixed oxides. These deposition techniques suffer from multiple drawbacks, such as poor conformality, low throughput, restricted directional variation, and low compositional control. Several of these problems can be overcome by using aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD) techniques. This method requires the precursor to be soluble in any solvent that is suitable for aerosol generation. The precursor is dissolved in a solvent, and an aerosol of the solution is generated ultrasonically to deposit layers of the decomposed material on the target substrate while at the same time ensuring both reproducibility and the presence of all components of interest in the deposited layer(s). Moreover, crystal growth and morphology of films can be controlled to get good photoelectrochemical performance. The thin films produced by AACVD have shown tremendous photocatalytic activity, especially in the photogeneration of hydrogen from water splitting. Hydrogen production by water splitting has been an objective of semiconductor photoelectrochemistry for nearly four decades. The energy difference between the oxygen evolution potential and the hydrogen evolution potential is 1.229 eV at 25ºC. Therefore, ideally one would like to have a chemically and optically stable semiconductor, in which the conduction and valence bands are positioned favourably so that they bestride the hydrogen and oxygen evolution potentials. To overcome the overpotential which is mainly associated with oxygen evolution, a semiconductor material with a band gap of 1.8–2.0 eV is preferred. This presentation is mainly focused on the a) fabrication of ceramic thin films via the AACVD method, b) optimization of certain parameters in controlling morphology and crystal growth of thin films, c) utilization of films as a photoanode, and d) measurement of photocurrent density.

About the Speaker:

Dr Muhammad Adil Mansoor is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of the Research School of Natural Sciences, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan. Dr Mansoor was awarded a Master of Science in Inorganic/Materials Chemistry (2008) and a Master of Philosophy in 2010 in the same domain from Quaid-E-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Then he did his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Materials Chemistry (2015) from the Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After his PhD, he did two post-doctorates, one in Physics and the other in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaya. He has been serving in NUST for the last five years. Dr Mansoor has over 13 years of experience in the field of fabrication of thin films Via Aerosol Assisted Chemical Vapour deposition (AACVD) and has produced about 50 well-reputed research articles He has won two Research grants worth 12.4 M PKR from Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan.

Talk 2:

Development of Electrode and Electrolyte Materials for High Performance Rechargeable Batteries

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ghulam Ali

U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy, National University

of Sciences and Technology (NUST), H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan

Date: Tuesday September 5th 2023, 11:30 am

Location: DKF, Faculty of Science

Abstract:

The need for high energy density batteries is increasing rapidly in order to meet the widespread usage of energy storage applications. The development of electrode and electrolyte materials is crucial to meet the high energy density of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). LiNi1-x-yMnxCoyO2 (NMC) cathodes have attracted substantial attention due to their exceptional electrochemical properties and potential to enhance the energy storage capabilities of LIBs. During charge and discharge cycles, the layered structure of NMC cathode facilitates lithium de/intercalation, however, thermal instability causes capacity to fade. In the presentation, I will discuss the methods to improve the surface of NMC cathode materials and subsequently increase electrochemical performance. Further, I will also discuss the development of stable solid electrolytes for LIBs, and improved performance of cathode and anodes for SIBs.

About the Speaker:

Ghulam Ali was born and raised in Multan, Pakistan. After his MSc in Physics and MPhil in Solid State Physics from University of the Punjab Lahore, he moved to Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), South Korea in 2011 for PhD program. Ghulam Ali completed his PhD in 2016 with dissertation titled “Investigation on the Reaction Mechanism of FeF3•0.5H2O, V2O5 and NaFePO4 as Cathode Materials for Na-Ion Batteries Using Synchrotron Based X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy”. After his PhD, Ghulam Ali continued as Post Doc. in the same institute where he worked on several projects related to the development of electrode materials and diagnostic techniques for rechargeable batteries. He joined U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy (USPCAS-E), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan back in 2019 as Assistant Professor and promoted to Associate Professor in 2021. Ghulam Ali was awarded with several awards such as Gold Medal from Pakistan Academy of Science, Best researcher of USPCASE, UST excellent research award, KIST academic excellence award, etc. Ghulam Ali has 120 high impact research publications, with an h-index of 31 and over 1000 impact factor, inventor of 11 patents, author of 4 book chapters and 4 journal cover-highlights. He is currently serving as Principal Investigator of two labs (Advanced Energy Materials & System Lab and Thermal and Energy Storage Lab). He has several projects from National and International agencies, and he is going to introduce some of his work in this talk.

Thank you.