Curriculum Vitae

Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan M.Sc., M.Phil., PhD

venk.phy@gmail.com,venkataramanmr@citchennai.net.

ResearchGate:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Venkatraman_Madurai_Ramakrishnan

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6472-900X

Professional Summary

5 years research experience in Third Generation Solar Cells (Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells and Perovskite Solar Cells). Completed PhD defence - September 2020. 16 papers in peer-reviewed International Journals. Have done a part of my PhD work at Norway for a total period of 1 year. 5 years of experience in the synthesis and characterization of various nanostructures through wet chemical methods such as Solvothermal, Microwave Assisted synthesis and light-induced reduction techniques. Experience in preparing thin films through physical methods such as thermal evaporation system and Cold Plasma Chamber. Developed in-house Solar Simulator for the testing of solar cells. Managed hands-on training sessions for bachelors and master’s students on the fabrication of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells and Characterization Techniques. Presented research results at 2 International arena’s – Norway & Sri Lanka.


Research Experience

 Ph.D. Physics (Jan 2014-Jan 2020)

Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, Coimbatore, India

Thesis title: “Studies on TiO2 and modified TiO2 based photoanodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells”. Under the supervision of Prof. Muthukumarasamy, my Ph.D. research work was focused on photoanodes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Specifically, TiO2 nanoparticles/nanostructures were synthesized by wet chemical techniques such as solvothermal and microwave methods. The performance of these prepared nanostructures as photoanodes in DSSCs was studied. Have also studied the effect of modifications of TiO2 such as non-metal doping (F, N), plasmonic enhancement (Ag), and composites (RGO/TiO2) on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells. Experimental techniques such as solvothermal method, microwave assisted solvothermal method, UV- aided photo reduction technique was conducted. Also carried out a part of my research work in western Norway university of applied sciences, Norway under the supervision of Prof. Dhayalan Velauthapillai.

 

Research Assistant (Feb 2013-Dec 2014)

Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, Coimbatore, India

Worked as a Research Assistant under the UGC funded project “Natural Dye-Sensitized Nanocrystalline TiO2 Thin Films for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells”. This project was mainly focused on the preparation of TiO2 thin films through chemical methods such as Spray and Spin coating methods and the prepared films were sensitized using various sensitizers prepared from naturally available materials such as flowers.

 

M.Phil. (2011-2012)

Alagappa University, Karaikudi, India

M.Phil. Research work: “Li4Ti5O12 based anodes for Li-ion batteries”

In this individual project work, I focused on tuning and studying the properties of Li4Ti5O12 by microwave-assisted solid-state reaction technique under the supervision of Dr. M. Sivakumar. The dissertation was submitted under the title “Studies on Li4Ti5O12 based anodes for Lithium-ion batteries”. Characterization techniques such as XRD, RAMAN, DLS was carried out and its electrochemical behaviour was studied using Impedance and Cyclic Voltammetry.

 

M.Sc. Physics (2009 –2011)

Bishop Heber College, India. In this individual project work, I worked under the supervision of Dr. Beaula Mary on “Fruit dye-sensitized solar cells”. In this master’s degree dissertation project work, construction of dye-sensitized solar cells using porous TiO2 nanoparticles sensitized using anthocyanins-based fruit dye extracts over FTO substrates as photoanodes were carried out.

 

 Research Internships

 

(May 2015 – Jul 2015), (Jan 2016 – Mar 2016), (Nov 2016 – Feb 2017),

(Apr 2018 – Jun 2018) 

Research Exchange student at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway under the supervision of Prof. Dhayalan Velauthapillai at a four different three months duration for one year under the Indo-Norwegian INCP/UTFORSK programmes. During this trip I worked on synthesis of nanostructures through Microwave method and also its performance as DSSC photoanode was studied. 

Jan 2018  

A research trip to Prof. Ravirajan’s lab at University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka for 15 days was supported by HRNCET mobility programme.

 Education

 

❖  Ph.D., Science and Humanities – Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells, 8.2 (Coursework), JAN 2014 to FEB 2020 Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu (IN)

 

❖  Master of Philosophy, Physics – 7.0, JUNE 2013 to MAY 2015, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu (IN)

 

❖  Master of Science, Physics, May 2011 – 8.4, Bharathidasan University, Trichy, Tamil Nadu (IN)

 

❖  Bachelor of Science, Physics, May 2009 – 83%, Bharathidasan University, Trichy, Tamil Nadu (IN) 

 

 Publications   Citations: 226    h-index: 8

 

1. Size controlled synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles by modified solvothermal method towards effective photo catalytic and photovoltaic applications, Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, Muthukumarasamy Natarajan, Agilan Santhanam, Vijayshankar Asokan, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Materials Research Bulletin, Volume 97, Pages 351-360, (2018). (IF-4.02)

2. Microwave Assisted Solvothermal synthesis of worms-like TiO2 Nanostructures in Submicron Regime as Light Scattering Layers for Dye- Sensitized Solar Cells, Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, Sondre Sandberg, N. Muthukumarasamy, Kristin Kvamme, P. Balraju, S. Agilan, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Materials Letters, Volume 236, Pages 747-751, (2019). (IF-3.2)

3. Transformation of TiO2 nanoparticles to nanotubes by simple solvothermal route and its performance as Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) photoanodes, Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, Muthukumarasamy Natarajan, P. Balraju, P. Selvakumar, Agilan Santhanam, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Arivalagan Pugazhendhi, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 45, Issue 31, Pages 15441-15452, (2020). (IF-4.93)

4.  UV-aided Graphene Oxide Reduction by TiO2 towards TiO2/Reduced Graphene Oxide (RGO) Composites for Dye-sensitized solar cells, Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, Muthukumarasamy Natarajan, P. Selvakumar, Agilan Santhanam, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Arivalagan Pugazhendhi, International Journal of Energy Research, In Press, https://doi.org/10.1002/er.5806, (2020). (IF-3.74)

5. Performance of TiO2 nanoparticles synthesized by microwave and solvothermal methods as photoanodes for Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC), Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, P. Selvakumar, N. Muthukumarasamy, Kristin Kvamme, G. Rajesh, S. Agilan, Arivalagan Pugazhendhi, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 45, Issue 51, Pages 27036-27046, (2020). (IF-4.93)

6.    Microwave Assisted Solvothermal Synthesis of Quasi Cubic F Doped TiO2 Nanostructures as Dye Sensitized Solar Cells photoanodes, Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, Muthukumarasamy Natarajan, Agilan Santhanam, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Arivalagan Pugazhendhi, International Journal of Energy Research, In Press, https://doi.org/10.1002/er.5882, (2020). (IF-3.74)

7.  Ag decorated TiO2 nanoparticles by UV assisted rapid reduction method as Electron transport layers (ETL) for dye-sensitized solar cells, Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, Muthukumarasamy Natarajan, Agilan Santhanam, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Arivalagan Pugazhendhi, Solar Energy, Under Review.

8.    Synthesis of TiO2 nanostructures by green approach as photoanodes for dye-sensitized solar cells, Rajkumar Senthamarai, Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, Balraju Palanisamy, Suguna Kulandhaivel, International Journal of Energy Research, Volume 45, Issue 2, Pages 3089-3096, (2021). (IF-3.74)

9.  Interfacing green synthesized flake like-ZnO with TiO2 for bilayer electron extraction in perovskite solar cells, Selvakumar P, Nandhakumar E, Muthukumarasamy N, Agilan Santhanam, Vijayshankar Asokan, Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, Balraju P, Anandhi K, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, New Journal of Chemistry, Volume 44, Issue 20, Pages 8422-8433, (2020). (IF-3.28)

10. Perovskite Solar Cells: A Porous Graphitic Carbon-based Hole Transporter/Counter Electrode Material Extracted from an Invasive Plant Species Eichhornia Crassipes, Selvakumar P, Nandhakumar E, Muthukumarasamy N, Agilan Santhanam, Vijayshankar Asokan, Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, Balasundaraprabhu Rangasamy, Senthilarasu Sundaram, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Scientific Reports, 10, Article number: 6835, (2020). (IF-3.99)

11.  A Review on the Classifications of Organic/Inorganic/Carbonaceous Hole Transporting Materials for Perovskite Solar Cell Application, Selvakumar Pitchaiya, Muthukumarasamy Natarajan, Agilan Santhanam, Vijayshankar Asokan, Akila Yuvapragasam, Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, Subramaniam E Palanisamy, Senthilarasu Sundaram, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Arabian Journal of Chemistry, Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages 2526-2557, (2020). (IF-4.76)

12.  The Performance of CH3NH3PbI3- Nanoparticles based – Perovskite Solar Cells Fabricated by Facile Powder press Technique, Selvakumar P, N. Muthukumarasamy, Agilan Santhanam, Vijayshankar Asokan, Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, Selvaraj Yuvaraj, Akila Yuvapragasam, Balasundaraprabhu Rangasamy, Senthilarasu Sundaram, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Materials Research Bulletin, Volume 108, Pages 61–72, (2018). (IF-4.02)

13. Nickel sulphide-carbon composite hole transporting material for (CH3NH3PbI3) planar heterojunction perovskite solar cell, Selvakumar Pitchaiya, Muthukumarasamy Natarajan, Agilan Santhanam, Venkatraman Madurai Ramakrishnan, Vijayshankar Asokan, Pavithrakumar Palanichamy, Balasundaraprabhu Rangasamy, Senthilarasu Sundaram, Dhayalan Velauthapillai: Materials Letters, Volume 221, Pages 283–288, (2018). (IF-3.20)

14.  Investigations on Hot-wall deposited Cadmium Sulphide buffer layer for thin film solar cell, G. Balaji, R. Balasundaraprabhu, S. Prasanna, N. Prabavathy, M.R. Venkatraman, Vijayshankar Asokan, N. Muthukumarasamy, M.D. Kannan, K. Sivakumaran, Materials Letters, Volume 222, Pages 82–87, (2018). (IF-3.20)  

15.  The performance of CdS quantum dot sensitized ZnO nanorod-based solar cell, D. Vinoth Pandi, N. Muthukumarasamy, S. Agilan, M. R. Venkat Raman, Y. Akila, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology, Volume 80, Pages 867–872, (2016). (IF-2.00)

16.  Structural, optical and magnetic properties of undoped NiO and Fedoped NiO nanoparticles synthesized by wet-chemical process, P.M. Ponnusamy, S. Agilan, N. Muthukumarasamy, T.S. Senthil, G. Rajesh, M.R. Venkatraman, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Materials Characterization, Volume 114, Pages 166-171, (2016). (IF-3.56)

17.  Solution based synthesis of high yield CZTS (Cu2ZnSnS4) spherical quantum dots, G. Rajesh, N. Muthukumarasamy, E.P. Subramanian, M.R. Venkatraman, S. Agilan, V. Ragavendran, M. Thambidurai, S. Velumani, Junsin Yi, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Superlattices and Microstructures, Volume 77, Pages 305-312, (2015). (IF-2.12)

Conference Proceedings:

1. Solvothermal synthesis of TiO2/CNT composites and its physical and chemical properties, M.R. Venkatraman, N. Muthukumarasamy, R. Balasundaraprabhu, S. Agilan, Dhayalan Velauthapillai, AIP Conference Proceedings 1665, 050166, (2015), https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4917807.  

International Conferences and Workshops

(Total No. of Conference Presentations: 13)

Selected Presentations:

 

 Skills

 

Weblinks


 References

Prof. Muthukumarasamy Natarajan (Ph.D.  Supervisor)  

 Department of Physics, Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore  

Tamilnadu 641014, India vishnukutty2002@yahoo.co.in


Prof. Dhayalan Velauthapillai (overseas Ph.D. Supervisor) 

Department of Engineering and sciences, Western Norway

University of applied sciences, Norway.  Dhayalan.Velauthapillai@hvl.no  

   

Prof. Ravirajan P (Ph.D. collaboration)  

University of Jaffna,  Department of Physics, Jaffna, Srilanka pravirajan@univ.jfn.ac.lk