DR. KOTHANDARAMAN, R.

   Looking for postdocs experienced in solid state materials synthesis and alkali metal ion battery fabrication, polymer electrolyte membrane synthesis and carbon felt/bipolar plate making

Prof Kothandaraman Ramanujam joined the Department of Chemistry-IITM in March 2011 as an assistant professor. He concurrently serves as the adjunct faculty of the National Centre for Catalysis Research (NCCR). He was born in a business town called Komarapalayam (near Bhavani), which is located at the bank of river Cauvery, in 1978. He completed his B.Sc in Chemistry from Sri Vasavi College affiliated to Bharatiyar University. Obtained his M.Sc in Applied Chemistry from Anna University in 2000. He was introduced to the field of Materials Electrochemistry by Prof. Ashok Kumar Shukla at the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and obtained his Ph.D. in 2006. After two successful postdoctoral stints at Michigan State University-East Lansing (Mentor: Prof. Scott C. Barton, 2007- 2009) and National Research Council of Canada-Ottawa (Mentors: Dr. Christina Bock and Prof. Barry MacDougall, 2009-2011), he joined the department of Chemistry-IITM. Research Expertise: Dr Kothandaraman’s expertise as a fine electrochemist of the country is focusing and contributing to realize India centric solutions for the ever-growing need of energy storage and conversion. Therefore, his motivation is in the direction of developing new functional materials, redox-active organic molecules and utilization of abundant resources such as sodium and zinc towards developing of newer energy systems. The academic research pursuits under the broad headings of (i) Lithium/Sodium/Zinc/Vanadium based batteries (ii) Organic Dyes for Solar Cells and (iii) Sensors have enabled delivery of “translatable research”. Besides, the photophysical and electronic properties of the redox-active organic functional materials developed by molecular engineering for sodium/lithium/zinc ion batteries and DSSC were explored at the molecular level using the DFT calculations.

Richa Gupta, Nikhil George Mohan, John Bell, Ashok Kumar Nanjundan, Kothandaraman Ramanujam, Fusion of Nitro Isomers of Naphthoquinone Enhances Capacity and Cyclability in Zn-ion Batteries, Sustainable Energy & Fuels, 2025, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d4se01542h

 Richa Gupta, Kothandaraman Ramanujam, Turning Adversity into Advantage: Investigating Capacity Decay Mode of Carboxylate functionalized-anthraquinone in Organic Redox Flow Batteries, ACS Applied Energy Materials, 2024,  7, 18, 7737–7744, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.4c01123

 Mohana Priya Babu, Sahana B.Moodakare, Raman Vedarajan, Kothandaraman Ramanujam, Quasi-Gel Polymer Electrolyte Interfaced with Electrodes through Solvent-Swollen Poly(ethylene oxide), for High-Performance Lithium/Lithium-Ion Batteries, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces,2024, 16, 34, 45399–45410, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c06192

 Priya Vallayil, Vikas S. Padalkar, Chinmoy Nandi, Kothandaraman Ramanujam, Sethuraman Sankararaman, An Engineered Electrode of Phenazine with Suitable Binder and Carbon to Exhibit Excellent Energy and Power Density in an Aqueous Organic Zinc Ion Battery, J. Power Sources, 2024 ,597,234153, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2024.234153

Electrocatalytic Reduction of Nitrogen to Ammonia Using Tiara-like Phenylethanethiolated Nickel Cluster, Manju P. Maman, Tamilselvi Gurusamy, Arun K. Pal, Rajkumar Jana, Kothandaraman Ramanujam, Ayan Datta and Sukhendu Mandal Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. e202305462, 2023, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202305462