ANCEHA research team at HVL conducted a clean energy workshop for the grade 9 students on the 25th of September at the HVL, Kronstad. Students were given an introduction to clean energy and then they were exposed to the clean energy situation in Sri Lanka and India followed by an introduction to Hydrogen. Later there were live demonstrations on the usage of dye sensitised solar cells and then students were given the opportunity to try out the new technologies in the hands on session.
ANCEHA research team at HVL conducted a clean energy workshop for the grade 9 students on the 23th of october at the HVL, Kronstad. Students were given an introduction to clean energy and then they were exposed to the clean energy situation in Sri Lanka and India followed by an introduction to Hydrogen. Later there were live demonstrations on the usage of dye sensitised solar cells and then students were given the opportunity to try out the new technologies in the hands on session.
ANCEHA group took part in the Research day event organized by city’s research and educational institutions from 20th to 21st September 2019. ANCEHA was one of the two groups representing HVL at the event. The research group presented and demonstrated its research under the theme of ‘How to sole the world energy crisis’. The group displayed and demonstrated various scientific research-working models such as third generation dye sensitized solar cells, streaming hydrogen boat and car models and solar charging ports using solar panels and have shared their experience on the new and emerging field of photovoltaics worldwide.
Three scholars including Shoji Keneko (President, SPD Laborary), P.V.V. Jayaweera (Principal Scientist, SPD Laboratory) visited the HVL on the 15th & 16th of September 2019. SPD Laboratory is the leading producer of automated spray pyrolysis deposition systems for laboratory and industrial applications. During the visit The scholars explained the manufacturing of transparent conducting thin films such as fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) and tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) on the glass substrates using SPD technique. SPD is an abbreviation of Spray Pyrolysis Deposition which is a versatile and effective technique to deposit functional thin films. Spray pyrolysis has been applied to deposit a wide variety of thin films. These films were used in various devices such as solar cells, sensors, display panels, and solid oxide fuel cells. ANCEHA group presented their research work on synthesis, fabrication of different type of solar cells, hydrogen evolution and super capacitors and photocapacitors.
Three Indian students from Coimbatore Institute of Technology (CIT), India have been undergoing research training at HVL. Pavithrakumar Palanichamy, Selvakumar Pitchaiya and Vinoth Pandi Dharmalingam from the Department of Physics at the CIT, arrived on 21st of August 2019. They are conducting research at HVL under Professor Dhayalan Velauthapillai.
Masters students from the Energy Environment and Social Change programme at the International Summer School of the University of Oslo, visited HVL and the ANCEHA research group as part of the filed excursion. On the 11th of July 2019 17 masters students from 17 countries visited HVL. Prof Dhayalan Velauthapillai gave an introductory lecture on clean energy technologies and it was followed by presentations from the members of the ANCEHA research group. Following the presentations, the students were taken to the lab for demonstrations to display the innovative research work conducted by the ANCEHA at HVL. Students spent a half day with the research group and were happy with what they experienced during the day.
Fatemeh Heidari Gourji, the new member of the ANCEHA research group presented her masters thesis in the bi-monthly research group meeting on the 12th june 2019. He titiel of the thesis is ‘Synthesis, Characterization and Application of Nano-photocatalysts based on Graphene’. In her prersentation she said: Photocatalysis has the signature of a promising technology that has several applications in environmental systems such as air purification, water disinfection, hazardous waste remediation, and water purification. In addition, the basic research that underlies the application of this technology is promoting a new understanding of the complex heterogeneous photochemical process of metal oxide systems in different environments. The continuous exploration of new phases and materials as potentially improved photocatalysts will most likely provide exciting results in the coming years. However, a more integrated use of theoretical and advanced experimental techniques will be crucial for achieving a rapid and significant enhancement of the performance.
Dr. Yohi Shivatharsiny, Senior lecturer, Department of Chemistry, University of Jaffna, has visited HVL for up to two weeks from 6th to 19th June 2019. She assisted visiting Master students from University of Jaffna at HVL with Gas Chromatography (Shimadzu GC-2010) for hydrogen evolution analysis.
Fatemeh Heidari Gourji joined HVL on 4 June 2019 as a PhD Research Fellow. Fatemeh’s PhD research will focus to implement new Nano structures and optimizing processes to develop high efficient, environmentally stable perovskite solar cells. She has a background in synthesis of Nano-photocatalysts with the aim of wastewater treatment. She has worked with TiO2 and Nano porous sheets of graphene Oxide specifically. She will be supervised by Prof. Dhayalan Velauthapillai.
On 22nd May 2019 visiting research students from University of Jaffna presented their research ideas for the ANCEHA research group at HVL. Arumugam Pirashanthan presentation was titled ‘role of thiophene derivative dyes in enhancing the performance of hybrid titanium dioxide / polymer solar cells’. In his presentation he argued Molecular electronic materials such as dyes, conjugated polymers, and small molecules are gaining much interest for applications in Photovoltaics. In particular, polymer blend and dye synthesized (photo electrochemical) solar cells play a major role in the field of organic Photovoltaics. Hence he is working with hybrid titanium dioxide /polymer and dye sensitized solar cells.
Sivagowri Shanmugaratnam presented ‘Transition metal chalcogenide [MS2] embedded TiO2 nanocomposites for hydrogen production over extended solar irradiation’. She said her work will focus on studying the impact of incorporation of transition metal chalcogenide on the active TiO2 nano composites for hydrogen production over extended solar irradiation.
Kajana Thirunavukarasu presented under the title ‘Storage of solar energy by heterostructured Silver-Metal oxides-SnS2 Photocapacitors’. Her study focus on synthesized heterostructured materials in the form of nanocomposites, characterize them and investigate their solar energy storage efficiency.
