Nanomaterials for Clean Energy and Environmental Sensors: An India−U.S. Workshop
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generation and CO2 mitigation and drew parallels in chemical sensing to the heightened activity in biosensing, emphasizing the important role of designed nanoparticles for both medical and environmental technologies. The first session, held at CeNS, featured talks by Prashant Kamat of Notre Dame and Ranjani Viswanathan of JNCASR on the general subject of materials for solar energy conversion. Both talks focused on the importance of understanding surface and interfacial chemistry for perovskite (Kamat) and quantum dot (Viswanathan) solar cells. The second session involved a group of talks that emphasized the importance of nanoparticle shape and structure, with relevance to swimming sensors (Ambarish Ghosh, IISc), block copolymers (Alamgir Ghosh, University of Akron), and affine surfaces for pthalocyanide films (P. Viswanath, CeNS). Each of these talks emphasized the importance and control of microstructure on properties and ultimate technological function for energy and/or sensing. The third session moved to the campus of IISc and featured a talk by V. Dravid (Northwestern) on materials for thermoelectrics and batteries, with an emphasis on accurate measurements of atomic structure. Presentations by Shankar Selvaraja (IISc) and N. Ravishankar (IISc) focused on highly efficient
or over a decade, the Indo−US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) has promoted bilateral collaborations between researchers in India and the United States. The scope of research extends across all disciplines, and one set of particularly fruitful projects involves the study of nanomaterials for energy science and technology. As part of this ongoing effort, researchers from three Indian institutions (Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences, CeNS; Indian Institute of Science, IISc; and Jawarharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, JNCASR; all in Bengaluru) joined with those from the U.S. (Northwestern University, Purdue University, and University of Notre Dame) to interact regarding ongoing projects primarily sponsored by a related IUSSTF-sponsored Joint Centre among the concerned institutions. The Joint Centre sponsors periodic meetings as well as longer-term bilateral exchange visits of students and faculty among the participating institutions to promote deepening of the collaborations. The proceedings of this meeting (see Figure 1) were inaugurated at CeNS by Bharat Ratna Professor C. N. R. Rao, FRS, who emphasized the importance of international collaborations over his distinguished career to date. He also highlighted the emergence of materials issues in solar−thermal power
Figure 1. Photograph of participants of the Joint Workshop on Nanomaterials for Clean Energy and Environmental Sensors held March 11−13, 2017 in Bengaluru, India.
Received: April 15, 2017 Accepted: April 17, 2017
© XXXX American Chemical Society
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DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00323 ACS Energy Lett. 2017, 2, 1137−1138
Energy Focus
http://pubs.acs.org/journal/aelccp
Energy Focus
ACS Energy Letters
Figure 2. Workshop participants enjoyed celebrating Holi, the festival of colors, at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Science.
Moving ahead, the Joint Centre looks forward to enabling new collaborations that were seeded at the event. We expect to sponsor at least two independent student exchanges and the same number of faculty exchanges in the coming year. In addition, planning for a U.S. meeting is underway to report the outcomes of the exchanges and collaborations.
optoelectronics and Au nanostructures such as 2D platelets, respectively. This session continued to highlight the importance of structure, particularly atomic structure, on functional properties for devices intended to improve energy conversion, storage, and conservation. The final session of the first day began with a talk by S. M. Shivaprasad (JNCASR) on edge defects in gallium nitride depositions that produce epitaxial vertical nanowalls. Pralay Santra (CeNS) delivered a talk on ligand-functionalized platelets and quantum dots whose macroscale assemblies produce profoundly different physical properties. In both talks, the uniquely favorable attributes of nanostructures with high aspect ratios for energy conversion processes were discussed. Day 2 was primarily devoted to socialization but began with a compelling talk by Prashant Kamat (Notre Dame) on best practices in scholarly writing. The audience, primarily comprised of students, learned about the importance of both emphasizing the uniqueness of a paper’s contributions and also ensuring that reported results are sound and repeatable. The remainder of the day was punctuated by a celebration of the Holi festival of colors, involving at least a bit of materials chemistry related to the production and dispersion of powders of vibrant colors (see Figure 2). Day 3 was held at JNCASR and began with talks on heterostructures and interfaces by Tim Fisher (Purdue), Shobhana Narasimhan (JNCASR), and Sushobhan Avasthi (IISc). Points of emphasis included the strong size dependence of redox equilibria (Narashimhan) and the importance of controlling materials processing for consistent, high-efficiency perovskite solar cells (Avasthi). The day continued with talks by David Janes (Purdue), S. K. Prasad (CeNS), Rabibratha Mukherjee (IIT-Kharagpur), and George Chiu (Purdue) on topics covering metal nanowire transparent conducting electrodes (Janes), liquid-crystal nanocomposites (Prasad), ordered self-assembly based on dewetting (Mukherjee), and roll-to-roll gravure coating (Chiu). In each talk, the importance of the structure−property−function nexus was clearly apparent, with recommendations for improved control and fast metrology for scaling up to industrial processes. Interspersed in the proceedings was an engaging poster session in which students from Indian and U.S. partners presented their latest research findings and discussed new possibilities with expert collaborators.
Timothy S. Fisher*,†,§ Giridhar U. Kulkarni*,‡,¶ †
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School of Mechanical Engineering and Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States ‡ Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences, Bengaluru 560013, India ¶ Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru 560064, India
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Authors
*E-mail: timothy.s.fi
[email protected] (T.S.F.). *E-mail:
[email protected] (G.U.K.). ORCID
Giridhar U. Kulkarni: 0000-0002-4317-1307 Present Address §
T.S.F.: Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A. Notes
Views expressed in this Energy Focus are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the ACS. The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors and participants of the workshop and joint centre gratefully acknowledge financial support from IUSSTF under Contract IUSSTF/JC- Nanomaterials for Clean Energy and Environmental Sensors/13-2015.
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DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00323 ACS Energy Lett. 2017, 2, 1137−1138
