Venkat Viswanathan

I am excited to share our latest publication in the Chemical Engineering Journal titled: "Facet dependence for solvent-modulated proton-coupled electron transfer in furfural acetalization on Pd nanostructures" which is a part of my PhD thesis. In this work, we investigated the acetalization of furfural over Pd nanostructures—spheres, cubes, and octahedra—and uncovered a fascinating facet-dependent reactivity trend, i.e., cubes > spheres > octahedra. We also examined the role of different alcohols, finding the reactivity order to be methanol > ethanol > propanol > butanol. To understand the underlying mechanism, DFT calculations were carried out. These showed that Pd cubes offer lower intrinsic activation barriers for all steps in the proposed reaction pathway. After including explicit solvent molecules in the system, a significant drop in activation barriers was observed—highlighting the crucial role of hydrogen-bonding networks in stabilizing transition states and enabling proton shuttling between adsorbed reactants and the solvent. This approach also allowed us to probe molecular-level solute–solvent interactions beyond what continuum models can offer. I’m extremely thankful to my supervisor Dr. Shelaka Gupta for her continuous support and guidance. Special thanks to our collaborators from NCL Pune, Dr. Govind Porwal and Twinkle Gorai for their experimental work led by Prof. C. P. Vinod. I am grateful for the valuable inputs and guidance with Dr. Tuhin Suvra Khan and Prof. M. Ali Haider. You can read the paper here: https://lnkd.in/dQAebeju #ChemicalEngineeringJournal #Catalysis #PdNanostructures #DFT #PCET #Acetalization #SolventEffects #Research

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Exciting News! KIIT Launches M.Tech in Electrical Engineering with Specialization in Electric Vehicle (EV) Technology! The future of mobility is electric, and the opportunities in Electric Vehicle (EV) Technology are growing faster than ever! We are happy to announce the launch of our new M.Tech program in Electrical Engineering with a specialization in EV Technology at KIIT University! This program is designed to equip students with cutting-edge knowledge in: x EV Powertrain & Battery Systems x Charging Infrastructure & Smart Grids x Power Electronics & Motor Drives x Sustainable Energy Integration Why Choose This Program? --Industry-Aligned Curriculum: Learn from experts and gain hands-on experience with the latest EV technologies. --Research & Innovation: Be part of groundbreaking projects in collaboration with leading industry players. --Bright Career Prospects: Tap into the booming EV market with high-demand roles in R&D, manufacturing, and sustainability. Join our vibrant academic community and be at the forefront of the electric revolution! Admissions Open Now! https://kiitee.kiit.ac.in/ #EVTechnology #FutureOfMobility #KIIT #MTech #ElectricalEngineering #HigherEducation #ElectricVehicles #CareerGrowth #EngineeringExcellence

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Our group at IISc Bangalore will present seven cutting-edge papers at the 2025 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS) next week in Monterey, CA! I am sharing an overview of these works. If you are attending IRPS, please drop a text.  [1] Advanced SCR-Based ESD Protection Concept: A novel SCR-based protection concept providing ultra-low leakage, reduced latch-up susceptibility, and significantly lower parasitic capacitances—advancing ultra-high-speed I/Os. [2] GaN-on-Si RF HEMT: We have bridged the performance and reliability gap between GaN-on-Si and GaN-on-SiC through a novel and efficient electric field engineering approach, significantly enhancing device reliability, current collapse, and reducing self-heating. [3] Ultimate Tunability in a Novel ESD Protection Device: We report a groundbreaking approach to achieve ultimate holding voltage and trigger voltage tunability, solving a long-standing industry problem. [4] 2D Material Reliability: We will present a new approach to develop insights into the reliability physics of 2D TMDs. [5] Breakdown Mechanisms in GaN HEMTs: We have experimentally validated how back-gating phenomena and buffer-trap dynamics affect breakdown and leakage currents in GaN HEMTs under pulsed operations. [6] Next-Generation β-Ga₂O₃ Devices: Our group reports for the first time and provides first-ever insights into dynamic breakdown behavior of β-Ga₂O₃ devices. [7] Electric Field Dynamics in AlGaN/GaN Structures: Our research validates buffer trap-driven field dynamics controlling breakdown and leakage trends in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. Looking forward to insightful discussions and collaborations at IRPS. References: [1] M. Goyal, et al., "Novel Trigger Circuit & SCR Device Co-Engineering Based Local (I/O-VSS & I/O-VDD) ESD Clamp Concepts with improved Latch-up Susceptibility, Lower Leakage and Lower Capacitance for Ultra High Speed I/Os", IEEE IRPS, 2025. [2] M. A. Munshi, et al., "Bridging the Performance and Reliability Gap of GaN-on-Si with GaN-on-SiC RF HEMTs by Efficient Electric Field Management Using a Novel p-type Oxide Passivation", IEEE IRPS, 2025. [3] M. Yadav, et al., "Proposal to achieve the ultimate holding voltage tunability in silicon controlled rectifier (SCRs) for a wide range of ESD protection application", IEEE IRPS, 2025. [4] U. Patbhaje, et al., "Small Signal Analysis of Degradation and Breakdown in TMD FETs", IEEE IRPS, 2025. [5] M. A. Munshi, et al., "Evidence of Back-Gating and its Impact on Breakdown in GaN-on-Si HEMTs with Carbon Doped Buffer Under Pulsed Conditions", IEEE IRPS, 2025. [6] H. Raj, et al., "First Observations and Physical Insights of the Dynamic Breakdown Voltage and Overvoltage Margin Under Pulsed Conditions in β-Ga2O3 Based Devices", IEEE IRPS, 2025. [7] R. R. Malik, et al., "Experimental Validation of Buffer Traps-Driven Electric Field Dynamics Governing Breakdown and Leakage Trends in AlGaN/GaN Heterostructures", IEEE IRPS, 2025.

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Another classic paper by Akshaya Chemmangat in JACS Bandgap Engineering of Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals for Maximizing Hole Transfer: Accessing the Marcus Inverted Region | https://lnkd.in/ge7dajQX University of Notre Dame - College of Science The valence band energy of the donor mixed halide perovskite nanocrystal, which varied from 1.74 to 0.94 V vs NHE through halide composition, viz., varying Cl:Br and Br:I ratio, allowed us to change the driving force (−ΔG) of hole transfer. The rate constant of hole transfer as determined from the transient absorption and photoluminescence decay measurements showed a nonlinear dependence on −ΔG. Analysis of this dependence followed Marcus-electron transfer theory with a reorganization energy of ∼1 eV.

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I’m excited to share our latest review article published in Energy Reports (Impact Factor: 5.1): 📄 “Review of Thermal Management Strategies for Cylindrical Lithium-Ion Batteries: Active, Passive, and Hybrid Approaches” 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dQKZGEMy ⸻ 🔎 Why Thermal Management Is Now a Strategic Priority Cylindrical lithium-ion cells (18650, 21700, 4680) are widely used across electric vehicles, energy storage, and high-power applications — but they present complex thermal challenges: 🔥 Radial temperature gradients 🔥 Core heat accumulation 🔥 Non-uniform aging effects 🔥 Elevated safety and performance risks As systems push higher power, faster charging, and longer life, thermal management has become a design driver — not an afterthought. ⸻ 📊 Key Takeaways from the Review 1️⃣ Active Cooling — High Performance with Cost Tradeoffs Liquid and refrigerant systems deliver excellent heat removal and temperature uniformity. ✔ Suitable for high C-rates and fast charging ✔ Effective for large EV packs ⚠ Complexity, cost, and energy consumption remain concerns Insight: Smart control and demand-based cooling are outperforming brute-force approaches. ⸻ 2️⃣ Passive Cooling — Simple but Capacity-Limited Phase Change Materials, heat pipes, and natural convection offer elegant, low-power solutions. ✔ Lower system energy use ✔ Fewer moving parts ✔ Lower weight ⚠ Limited heat removal under sustained loads Insight: Best used for peak temperature buffering, not continuous high-power duty. ⸻ 3️⃣ Hybrid Systems — Balancing Strengths Hybrid architectures (PCM + liquid cooling, heat pipes + forced air) combine the best of both worlds. ✔ Improved temperature uniformity ✔ Reduced energy penalty ✔ Enhanced safety redundancy Future Direction: AI-driven adaptive control, electro-thermal modeling, and integrated system design. ⸻ 🔥 Why This Matters for Industry The next generation of high-performance battery systems must: ✔ Minimize temperature gradients (<3–5 °C) ✔ Enable ultra-fast charging without degradation ✔ Suppress thermal runaway propagation ✔ Combine real-time sensing with predictive control Thermal management is now a system-level optimization challenge that intersects cell chemistry, pack architecture, and battery management algorithms. ⸻ 💡 Final Thoughts We’re operating in a moment where thermal constraints are shaping the limits of performance — not just chemistry. Organizations that integrate advanced thermal strategies into early design will lead in safety, durability, and customer trust. 🙏 Grateful for the collaboration of all co-authors and partners on this work. Let’s continue advancing safe, reliable, and high-performance battery systems! #BatteryThermalManagement #LithiumIon #EVInnovation #EnergyStorage #ThermalEngineering #BatterySafety #Research #EnergyReports

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Thick Electrode Boosts Battery Power by 75%. (miragenews.com) "A research team, affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a new type of thick electrode aimed at solving a common challenge in battery design. That is as the capacity increases, power often decreases. This breakthrough could enable electric vehicles (EVs) to travel farther on a single charge without sacrificing acceleration or responsiveness. The new electrode maintains a high capacity of 10 mAh/cm² while significantly enhancing power performance. Specifically, under a high 2C discharge rate, traditional electrodes deliver about 0.98 mAh/cm², whereas the new design reaches 1.71 mAh/cm²-roughly 75% more energy in a short burst. This improvement stems from a detailed analysis of the electrode's internal pore structure. In this study, the team identified two types of pores. Large ones between particles that help Li-ions flow easily, and tiny pores formed by conductive additives and binders, known as the carbon-binder domain (CBD). They discovered that these micro-pores can hinder ion flow. To better understand this, they developed a new model, called the Dual-Pore Transmission Line Model (DTLM), which separates ionic pathways into two parallel channels. Using DTLM, they further optimized manufacturing processes and material ratios to fine-tune the internal pore structure for improved performance." https://lnkd.in/g6AZhK_n https://lnkd.in/gucRfPkz

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Excited to share our latest work published in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental Energy (IF: 20.3), titled "Engineering Spin State Modulation through Phosphorus-Coordinated Fe-NC Catalysts for Enhanced ORR Performance in Flexible Al-Air Batteries." Led by my Ph.D. student Mr. Muthukumar Perumalsamy in collaboration with Prof. Kyeounghak Kim’s group, this study introduces a phytic acid-assisted phosphorus doping strategy to tailor Fe coordination and electronic structure. The Fe–NPC catalyst demonstrates an onset potential of 0.99 V, a half-wave potential of 0.88 V (vs. RHE), and a low Tafel slope of 68 mV dec⁻¹. DFT calculations reveal that P-induced d-band center downshift reduces OH* adsorption energy, improving ORR kinetics. The resulting flexible Al–air battery achieves an OCV of 1.47 V, a peak power density of 34.8 mW cm⁻², and excellent stability. This work offers valuable insights for designing next-generation flexible energy storage devices. With Elsevier's support you can read more with 50 days free access: https://lnkd.in/eXd7Yvkm

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🎉 Excited to share that our latest paper has just been published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B! 🎉 👉 https://lnkd.in/g3h4F3E6 Fluoride is known to form some of the strongest hydrogen bonds in aqueous solution, making it a great system for studying the interplay between ion–water and water–water interactions, hydrogen-bond dynamics, and nuclear quantum effects (NQEs). In this study, we combined our data-driven many-body energy (MB-nrg) potential energy functions with advanced quantum dynamics simulations to uncover the molecular-level mechanisms that define fluoride hydration. Here is a brief summary of our key findings: 🔹 Distinct OH bond reorientation pathways in the first hydration shell that give rise to the bifurcation of the libration band in the infrared spectrum. 🔹 Short-range three-body interactions are essential to accurately capture the structure and vibrational response of the first hydration shell. 🔹 Nuclear quantum effects induce a redshift in the OH-stretch region but have only minimal impact on the overall hydration structure and orientational dynamics. This work demonstrates the importance of rigorously accounting for many-body interactions and NQEs when modeling ionic hydration in water, which plays an important role in various fields ranging from biophysics to energy science. We’re honored that this paper is part of the special issue celebrating the contributions of Mark A. Johnson, whose work has inspired generations of researchers exploring the vibrational dynamics of molecular clusters and solvated ions. 👏 Congratulations to Richa, Benjamin, Henry, and Roya! UC San Diego School of Physical Sciences Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, UC San Diego San Diego Supercomputer Center

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Single crystals (SC) of NMC cathodes refer to mono-dispersed small particles around 2-5 microns that are structurally resilient to cracking under typical battery operation. As a result, they are both appealing for industry e.g. "million mile batteries" but also academically interesting. In the latter case SC NMC cathodes can be used as a model system for isolating other degradation mechanisms occurring by suppressing the "noise" of cracking with polycrystalline counterparts. However, the smaller particle size means that there are serious synthetic and electrode manufacturing challenges with their adoption. This new Chemical Review paper "Understanding Degradation in Single-Crystalline Ni-rich Li-ion Battery Cathodes" by Matthew Ogley, Beth Johnston, David Hall and myself is a holistic look from crystals to cells considering the synthetic & manufacturing challenges along with insight from studies on Ni-rich SC cathodes so far! It is published as part of Chemical Reviews special issue “Single Crystal Materials for Energy Solutions: From Materials Chemistry to Manufacturing Science”. WMG, University of Warwick, University of Stavanger, The Faraday Institution Read more at: https://lnkd.in/ePZnF4VV

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I am happy to share that Dr. Simran (joint degree student between IITD and NYCU) has published her research work in “Energy Storage Materials”. Here, we demonstrated long battery life of sodium-ion half-cells up to 2000 charge/discharge cycles (approximately 5.5 years considering 1 cycle per day) and that at 10 times faster rate (10 C) as compared to our usual mobile charger speed (1 C)…….. Also, performed in-depth analysis using operando/in-situ diffraction/microscopy measurements in Taiwan…….. the PDF file can be downloaded free next 50 days using the link below: https://lnkd.in/dJN925B4 Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of IndiaANRF-Mission for Advancement in High-impact Areas (MAHA) - EV-MissionAnusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF)Indian Institute of Technology, DelhiDepartment of Science & Technology, Government of India

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Exciting News! 🎉 P.E.S College of Engineering, Mandya is proud to announce the availability of a Campus-wide MathWorks License, providing unlimited access to MATLAB, Simulink, and over 100 toolboxes—anytime, anywhere! 💻📊 This initiative empowers students and faculty with the latest tools for data analysis, AI & machine learning, control systems, robotics, and more. Whether it’s for research, projects, or assignments, enhance your learning and career readiness with powerful simulation and computational resources. 🔗 Access via MATLAB Online, Mobile, and Drive 🔍 Explore the customized MathWorks portal exclusively for PESCE, Mandya! #pescollegeofengineering #pesmandya #pesce #pescemandya #matlab #simulink #mathworks #engineeringtools #ai #machinelearning #robotics #campuslicense #engineeringeducation #innovationinlearning

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🔥 Thrilled to share our latest research emerging from the Multiscale Materials Modeling Lab of the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, where we dive into the fascinating world of hydrogen transport inside metals. Hydrogen does not just wander randomly through a crystal. Sometimes, it adheres to a tightly confined one-dimensional highway along dislocation cores, known as pipe diffusion. And when alloying elements sit along that path, things get very interesting. In this study, conducted by our lab alumnus, SRI SADGUN REDDY PULAGAM, and me, we investigate how hydrogen migrates along edge dislocations in V–Al alloys using a combined molecular dynamics, nudged-elastic-band, and kinetic Monte Carlo framework. The results turned out to be quite striking. Even a tiny concentration of Al locally reshapes the dislocation core and almost doubles the migration barrier for hydrogen. This leads to a dramatic slowdown of pipe diffusion, much more pronounced than what we observe for bulk diffusion. The study highlights how sensitive hydrogen transport becomes when confined to a one-dimensional channel and offers new insights into trapping, accumulation, and the broader implications for hydrogen-resistant alloy design. ⚙️✨ It was exciting to watch the atomistic picture come together across spatial and temporal simulation scales and to see how solute atoms can subtly but powerfully reshape diffusion pathways. For anyone working on hydrogen storage, membranes, structural alloys, or computational materials science, I hope this work adds a useful perspective. The article is available for free access for the next few weeks. 👉 https://lnkd.in/dvKC6QCk #HydrogenEnergy #MaterialsScience #HydrogenEmbrittlement #Dislocations #AtomisticModeling #ComputationalMaterials #Vanadium #publication #ResearchUpdate 🚀🔬

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Are EVs - the latest thing? Not so much. On September 17th, Sharan Kalwani will give us the scoop on the history of EVs and the batteries that power them. Registration: https://lnkd.in/gJm8dDXh September 17th @ 7pm CDT Electric vehicles first appeared in the mid-19th century. EVs held the land speed record until around 1900. The high cost, low speed, and short-range of battery electric vehicles, compared to 20th century internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, led to a worldwide decline in their use as private motor vehicles, although electric vehicles have continued to be used in the form of loading and freight equipment and public transport – especially rail vehicles. Now in the 21st century, interest in electric vehicles has increased due to growing concern over the problems associated with fossil fuel vehicles, including damage to the environment caused by their emissions, and the sustainability of the current hydrocarbon-based transportation infrastructure as well as improvements in EV technology.  We will explore all of these aspects and a quick glimpse in the current state of the art, as well as developments around the corner. Co-hosted with the IEEE groups led by: Sabia Abidi, Kate Carney Landow, Annie (Wei) Dai, Argenis Bilbao, Chyna Lane, Leslie Martinich, Colleen Bailey, Christopher Sanderson, SMIEEE, SMASQ, Vickie Ozburn, MBA, Haley Hirschfield, Dave Hanson, John M. Santiago, Jr, Ph.D, or Dr. J, Carl Greco, Zina Ben Miled, Italo Bett, Marvin Geersen, Richard Toftness, Mohamed Morsy, Gene Freeman, Braden Padgett, MBA,EIT, Diane Collier, Owen Herman, Zizhao (Finn) Wang

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The Materials Science and Catalysis Division at Poornaprajna Institute of Scientific Research, Bengaluru, is at the forefront of cutting-edge research and innovation in advanced materials and catalytic processes. Our team of dedicated researchers and scientists focuses on developing novel materials with tailored properties for applications in energy, environment, and sustainable technologies. From nanomaterials to heterogeneous catalysis, we explore innovative solutions to address global challenges such as clean energy production, pollution mitigation, and resource efficiency. Collaborating with industry and academia, we strive to bridge the gap between fundamental research and real-world applications. Join us in our mission to drive scientific discovery and create impactful technologies for a sustainable future! #MaterialsScience #Catalysis #Innovation #Sustainability #Research #PPISR

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