Dr Arun Kumar works as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in School of Chemistry, under the supervision of Dr. Alexey Ganin. He has expertise in synthesizing inorganic materials, hands-on-experience with advanced materials characterisation techniques, materials design, synthesis and structure-property-corelation. His aim is to discover novel, active, stable, and low-cost noble-metal free thin-film based electrocatalysts and new electrochemical routes for sustainable production of hydrogen as a fuel. His research interests include understanding the electrochemical activation of dimensionally stable thin film based “Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs)” for hydrogen production. Specifically, he is working on the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of stable 2D-based MoTe₂ films supported on high-surface area carbon-substrates as a Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) Catalyst for PEM flow-cell Water Electrolysis.

He aims to address the challenges in the future water electrolysis system development, including reducing system size, complexity and improving the dynamics of the entire electrolysis system. Using mechanistic insight, he plans to extend his knowledge to build an industry standard, large-scale solar-powered water-electrolyser by addressing the distinctive engineering challenges as a cost-cutting strategy (“foot-print”) from the protype design using 3D-printed cells, assembly and tuning the performance for the future electrochemical energy conversion technologies.