Sachin Maruti Chavan
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry, Bioscience and Environmental Engineering
Bio
My research work is in the fields of inorganic, physical, materials chemistry and chemical engineering. The main research interests are to explore the chemistry of materials, develop and test material for energy and environmental application. The interdisciplinary research in my group focuses on the synthesis of materials and testing for applications in gas storage; gas separation and purification; separation from liquid media; personal protection and catalysis. The main emphasis is on clean, sustainable energy and the environment. We also use a range of analytical, spectroscopic techniques to characterize materials comprehensively. At a fundamental level, we investigate the structure-property- performance relationship for material in the given application.
Material synthesis
Synthesis of material such as Metal-organic frameworks, nanoparticles, metal oxides, functional materials using laboratory-scale hydrothermal, solvothermal, reflux and control atmosphere synthesis of materials.
Material characterization
We characterize the structural, textural, electronic, and vibrational properties of the materials. The surface properties of a material are important in many of the applications that we research, therefore emphasis is given to characterize these properties using both in situ and real-time characterization techniques. We also use large scale facilities European synchrotron radiation facility and the MaxIV laboratory for the characterization of materials.
Energy and environment applications
We target the development of materials for applications:
Gas adsorption
Gas storage Developing high surface area materials with greater affinity for hydrogen and methane is necessary for economical storage and transportation of hydrogen. MOFs have shown potentials in adsorbed gas storage application. We study the adsorption of hydrogen on porous materials.
Gas separation and purification We focus here on tailoring the adsorption capacity and selectivity of material. The materials are designed to gain high uptake and low energy of regeneration. This is necessary in natural gas and biogas purification and dewatering, carbon capture applications.
Personal protection: This research is in collaboration with Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt (FFI). We are developing and testing adsorbent for toxic industrial chemicals captures and degradations.
Separation from liquid media
Removal of pharmaceutical Adsorption-based technology has a great potential in removing contaminants such as heavy and toxic metals and pharmaceuticals, persistent chemicals, etc. We are developing materials that can remove and convert these PCPs into non-toxic or easily degradable chemicals.
Critical metal recovery These include metals required for clean energy technologies and the metals identified by the EU, as critical metals for the future. These include recovery of metals from batteries, permanent magnet, PGMs, and rare earth metals.
Collaborations: Professor: Pascal D. C. Dietzel (University of Bergen); Prof. Emmanouil Manos (University of Ioannina, Greece); Prof. Mark Foreman, (Chalmers University of Technology Sweden); Dr Roberto Fernández de Luis (BCM, Spain), Scanship AS, Glencore Nikkelvek, SEID AS, Nook Energy AS, TiOtech AS.
Experience:
2018-2020: Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Bioscience and Environmental Technology, University of Stavanger
2017-2018: Chief Technology officer, Profmof As, Kongsberg, Norway
2015-2017: Research Fellow, Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, Oslo,
2013-2015: Researcher, Center of Material Science and Nanotechnology, University of Oslo, Norway
2012-2013: Vista Scholar, Norwegian Academy of science and letters, Oslo,
2010-2012: Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Inorganic, Physical and Materials Chemistry and NIS Centre of Excellence, University of Turin, Italy
2007-2010: PhD fellowship, Department of Inorganic, Physical and Materials Chemistry and NIS Centre of Excellence, University of Turin, Italy
