Research Associate Ramkrishnan Rajagopalan
My research is aimed at primarily understanding the structure-property
relationships of nanoporous carbon derived from polymer precursors.
Physical properties of carbon such as porosity, pore size distribution,
surface area and surface functionalities plays an important role
in defining the use of these materials in several applications.
Control of the properties of these carbons can lead to variety of
applications that include gas separation, catalysis, gas storage
and electrodes for fuel cells and electrochemical capacitors. These
properties can be tuned in polymer-derived carbons by controlling
the phase separation of polymer blends. The polymer precursors of
our interests include polyfurfuryl alcohol, polyethylene glycol,
polyvinyledene chloride and coal tar pitch.