Research

Our group works at the intersection of chemistry, materials science, and engineering. Below are our three main research themes.

Sustainable Fuels

We develop membrane and electrode technologies for the production of green hydrogen and solar fuels. Key areas include:

• Bipolar membranes for water splitting and artificial photosynthesis
• Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzers — cell design, conditioning, and operando characterization
• Vapor-fed electrolysis using earth-abundant catalysts
• Solar-driven water splitting with optimized pH gradients

Our work integrates electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, distribution of relaxation times analysis, and operando three-electrode methods to understand and improve electrolyzer performance.

Machine Olfaction

We design electronic nose systems capable of identifying and quantifying vapors in complex environments. Our approach combines:

• Chemically diverse conducting polymer sensor arrays — electrochemically deposited arrays with tunable selectivity
• Joule heating-driven modulation for active sensing in changing environments
• Artificial intelligence — spiking neural networks, deep learning, and traditional pattern recognition for simultaneous vapor classification and concentration estimation
• Readout circuit design for wide input range sensor interfaces

Applications include agricultural monitoring, grain storage, and detection in challenging real-world conditions.

Polymer Electronics

We explore the fundamental properties and applications of conducting and self-doped polymers. Topics include:

• Self-doped polyaniline and polythiophene — synthesis, redox properties, and device integration
• Resistive memory devices based on conjugated polymer heterojunctions
• Organic electronics — PEDOT-based junctions for photovoltaic and sensor applications
• Computational studies — band gap modulation, silicene/germanene, and 2D heterostructures

This work bridges synthetic chemistry, device physics, and first-principles computation.