Research Interest

Research Areas

Resources and Energy from Waste and Renewable Sources – hydrothermal / supercritical conversion processes, biomass / plastics to fuel, chemicals advanced carbon materials.
Nano-scale engineering for energy and environment – molecular assembly, interface engineering, materials for effluent treatment, resource recovery, waste to energy/resources – carbocatalysts, photocatalysts, membrane systems.
High temperature polymers, polymer composites, inorganic-polymeric hybrids.
Supercritical fluids/hydrothermal processing – environmental and energy applications, adsorbent synthesis, reactions, polymer processing, nanomaterial synthesis and processing, biomass conversion.

Research Mentorship

Master’s thesis supervised (M Eng degree):

Regeneration of granular activated carbon with supercritical carbon dioxide:sorption studies with MEK (methyl ethyl ketone) (Chen Ming, 1997)
Ethyl benzene sorption in dense gas media (R. Harikrishnan, 1998)
Reaction and purification in polyimides in a dense gas medium (Gu Yongjian, 2001)
Cu thin film deposition on polyimide by reduction and chemical vapour deposition. (Chen Lina, 2001)
Preparation and characterization of polyimide network films. (Xia Jiqiang, 2001)
Synthesis and Characterisation of Polyimides for Internal Dielectric Layer (Yap Kok Siong John Derrick, 2001)
Corrosion Inhibition in Microelectronic Copper Thin Film (Tan Yong Siang, 2004)
Synthesis, characterization, application and regeneration of mesoporous carbon-based adsorbent (Levie Lesun, 2005)
Self- Assembly of organic molecules on copper for corrosion inhibition (Ng Su Peng, 2011)

PhD students supervised:

Composite Polymeric Materials Based on Polyimide (Wang Jin Wei, 2000).
Subphase entrainment in Langmuir-Blodgett film deposition (Li Yan Zhang, 2002).
Synthesis of Functional Polyimide and its Application in Nanostructured Films (Jia Zhigang, 2006).
Ultrathin Films of Oligoimide, Polyimide and Polyimide Composites on Amine-Terminated Substrates through Covalent Molecular Assembly, (Zhang Fengxiang, 2006).
A modeling study of Ion Implantation in Crystalline Silicon involving Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics methods (Chan Hay Yee, Serene, 2006).
Modeling and Simulation of ion implantation induced damage (Caroline Mok, 2007).
Adsorption and diffusion of gases in ETS-4 (Ravi Marathe, 2006) – co-supervision.
Solvation forces and contact mechanics at the nanometre scale in molecular liquids (Nithyanand Gosvami, 2008) – co-supervision.
Nanostructured Ultrathin Films by Covalent Molecular Assembly in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (Sreenivasa Reddy, 2007).
Defect engineering in the formation of ultra-shallow junctions for advanced nano-metal oxide semiconductor technology (Yeong Sai Hooi, 2009).
Molecular Assembly based Nano-Composite Structures (Raju Kumar Gupta, 2010).
Covalent molecular assembly of conducting polymers on silicon (S. Jayaraman, 2012).
Nano-structured materials for memory applications (Huang Mei Yu, Stella, 2012).
Construction of Functional Nano-Structures by Layer by layer and Self-assembly Techniques (Zhou Ruitao, 2014).
Fabrication and Patterning of Metal and Metal Oxide Nanostructures (Vignesh Suresh, 2014).
Energy and recovery from solid waste by hydrothermal oxidation (Akshay Jain, 2015).
Nano-structured materials for drug delivery systems (Pooya Davoodi, 2017).
Molecular modifications at semiconductor surfaces (Bhavesh Bhartia).
Optimising the design of agitated tanks for mitigating scale formation (Davoody, Meysam).
Microwave-assisted hydrothermal carbonization of rice husk and rice straw for its applications as a solid fuel and a filler for polymer composites (Nizamuddin Sabzoi).
Development of polyimide membranes for gaseous separations and oligoimide membranes for reactive liquid separations (Neha Bighane).

Currently supervising 9 PhD students.

Recent Research Grants

Feasibility study (Phase 1) on Post-Consumer Timber Furniture Waste Recycling into Biochar and Carbonaceous Materials.Funding agency:Illawarra Shoalhaven Joint Organization.AUD $25k.
Recycling of Nitrogen from Urine: A Review on Nitrogen Mapping and Technological Solutions relevant to Wastewater Treatment Plants.Funding agency: Southeast Water Corporation AUD $20k.
Biosolids and Biogas to Carbon Nanomaterials Coated Biochar and Hydrogen.Funding agency: Southeast Water Corporation. AUD $53k.
ARC Research Hub for transformation of reclaimed waste resources to engineered materials and solutions for a circular economy (TREMS), AUD $5,000,000, 2019.
Understanding Nickel and Cobalt Reactions and Speciation during Neutralisation, CleanTeQ Pty Ltd, AUD $113,000, 2019.
Investigating the feasibility of pyrolysis/co-pyrolysis of the Victorian Biosolids and Alum Sludge with other waste streams, Melbourne Water, AUD $60,000.2019.
Energy and Materials Recovery from Paunch Waste Using Novel Hydrothermal and Supercritical Water Gasification Processes, AMP Corporation, AUD $171,000, 2018.
Biosolids to Biochar: An Innovative Solution to Biosolids Management, Southeast Water Corporation, AUD $310,000, 2018.
Hybrid Photocatalytic Nanomaterials for Water Purification, Australian Research Council Discovery Project. AUD $402,934, 2018.

BITS Pilani

Research Interest

Research Areas

Research Mentorship

Recent Research Grants

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