Good day, Dr. Sabhapathy Palani. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia.

Hi.

Could you briefly introduce your professional journey in academia, Professor?

Yeah, sure. Yeah. Thank you, first of all.

I'm a doctor, Sabhavati Palani.

Complete my PhD in National University, Taiwan and my research team is mainly focused on electrochemical conversion of small molecules into chemicals and fuels and also energy storage technologies such as reductions, flow, battery and and metal batteries such as potassium ion and sodium ion particularly targeting aqueous-based electrolyte.

So as I mentioned, I am electrochemist. So but mostly my work is aligned with the developing electrocatalyst and study them their activity versus their functional such as how the structure changes activity, those kind of things. And once I complete my PhD in in NTHU and a crime sneaker, then I move to National Taiwan University to my first post-doc, which is kind of extension of my.

PhD work.

Then I showed that how the the the coordination of the numbers such as things affected the electron transfer number and product selectivity. So I spent almost three years at National Taiwan University. Once I completed, then I want to move and I want to learn new things and I want to expand my knowledge. So I came here to the US to do my second post doc at Case Western University. Here is the team is the research team is mainly focused on.

More specifically, targeting design the atomically precise catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction.

Online design, not the yellow characters, which is quite different than what I did in Taiwan.

And here mostly we are focusing on developing structural product we call it it's not a traditional Aquasaron Aquas based system, but it's like the other systems like departure solvent or water solve based electrolyte. So here I learned how we can design the electrolyte which is which is overcome the problem which we when we used aqueous based autonomous as electrolyte.

So here mostly, uh, I develop electrolyte and study their physical properties and then how the solid structures changes and use them in a battery system such as potassium and battery and redox flow of battery. And recently we start using the similar electrolyte for electrochemical sewer reduction.

Stock and extensive knowledge in electrochemistry, electrocatalyst design and electrolyte design. So I, I hope that I I, I, I, I would be that the perfect fit fit in this department, particularly as advertised. It's it's the the the the guide need to know to to design Electro catalyst and also study them in the system such as.

Based on my PhD and my post experience, I would be the the the great fit for this push at V8.

Electrolysis and fuel cells. So I hope that.

Thank you, Professor. Let's begin by discussing your expertise in electrochemistry, electrocatalyst design, and electrolyte design. Could you walk me through a specific research project or achievement in this area that demonstrates your depth of knowledge and practical experience?

Yeah, sure. So I just want to.

Highlight one of my post-doc work, which is as I said, it's a continuation of my PhD, my PhD work, it's exclusively focused on the cobalt based single atom catalyst. How this coordination structure change the their activity for hydrogenation reaction. So in, in the so I, I, I learned those things because this coordination number like affect the reaction kind takes on reaction mechanism.

So but the high revolution reaction is the simple reaction, so I want to.

Take this idea into more complicated systems such as oxygen reduction reaction which is 4 electron 4 proton transfer. So I designed Electro catalyst which is.

Which is shows excellent catalytic activity in in like a lab scale system from single like 3 ultra system. So once it's this catalyst is called iron N4 single atom catalyst. So the the problem with iron and four it's strong. Also Spanish of your reactant on intermediate. So my idea was so I have to add something.

Understood,

To that iron side which like to take electron or reduce the electron density or lots of energy. So I added halogens from fluoride to iodine and then the I found that the chlorine is the best. So which shows excellent calendar activity. Then the pristine iron and four. And then for system level demonstration, I use the same catalyst in, in, in, in.

In fuel cell, protonaxium membrane fuel cell that we achieved our own close to 600 to 700 milligrams per centimeters per peak per peak power density. That's not a great, but it's considering the lab scale system.

This is one of the best. That's the what I I did like the high rate my first PhD.

Plus four-star, so sorry. So here at case wisdom, it's quite deep. As I mentioned, it's electrolyte engineering mostly. So I just keep my, uh, catalyst knowledge side and then I just mostly focus on how we can design electrolyte because it's it's one of the important.

Thing in the in any other system, because which is the electrolyte is connected the two electrode, right? It's it should be uh, like, uh.

Perfectly capable to do the job. So in aquos or non aquos medium it's very well known. It's already demonstrated it's commercialized. But aquas medium there is always a problem with water splitting because the potential winter is very narrow. Theoretically 1.23 and Nana cost medium give a more flexibility to extend the potential window but unfortunately it's toxic and and and easy evaporation.

And.

And I flavorful. So we want we want to avoid those part. So we want to we want to design Aqua space system, but extended potential window. So we introduce systems called what insult electrolyte the traditional Electro system. It's a diluted system like one molar or or .1 molar concentration of salt dissolvent water. But in our case we increase the salt concentration.

Beyond that limit, so which we it's it's called not salt in water. It's actually water in salt. So by definition here.

Soldered weight ratio is higher than water, so which means that most of the water molecule participate in the salvation structure of your ions cation and anion. So you are actually gets into the potential window because of no free water molecule. So we designed the potassium triplet based system which is Kotf water and salt and we show that this electrolyte shows XN kinetic performance when used copper for seawater reduction. So we achieved.

Close to 80% see the selectivity. So this is like kind of new Ave. like it. It recently started people like crazy about this topic water and salt and like there are tons of papers on battery system like lithium and battery water based electrolyte, potassium and battery and sodium ion battery. Even the multivalent like aluminum and magnesium battery. But we are mostly interested in using this kind of electrolyte system for. Energy conversion application small molecular like CO2 into valuable product or.

Are nitrate into ammonia and even CL coupling like synthesis of urea? So this is a 2 domain I'm working on. I hope that I can extract at this work in at VAT and even explore more other reactions such as like organic electrosynthesis.

And also extend to other battery system or like even.

So far it's not like. Reach its peak, so I hope that I can push that limit into.

Bringing this kind of technology from lab skill to commercial scale, that's my ultimate aim.

Like.

MMM.

Thank you for that detailed explanation, Professor. It seems you’ve demonstrated significant expertise in both electrocatalyst design and electrolyte engineering, as well as their applications in energy conversion and fuel cell systems. You spoke about tailoring electrocatalysts by incorporating halogens and also innovating with water-in-salt electrolytes for extended

potential windows. Could you elaborate on how you approach scaling these lab-based innovations, both in fuel cells and energy conversion systems, toward commercial or industrial applications?

So the first one, the fuel cell which I developed, the catalyst is iron based.

So I hope that the iron is cheap like, uh, relatively speaking compared to cobalt based system, cobalt is the second best Electro catalyst for oxidation reaction. So the, the, the main like a drawback with for my system like iron N4 with the chlorine, the successful attachment of chlorine to iron. So I I, I, I, I utilized the high temperature privileges method, but I hope that.

It's a deciding the iron and core system homogeneously like ergonomic synthesis people directly attaching chlorine and then do the pyrolysis which which give us the proper control. So I hope that that's the one thing is lacking in my system. So if we solve that issue like designing like metal and four like a talus sign in based system with chlorine attachment directly and the doom the other pyrolysis, then I.

I easily bring the this system from lab scale synthesis to large scale synthesis and so then I can use that catalyst in the field cell. And the second problem which I faced in the actual fuel cell system, the peak power density still still I got like around 607 hundred milliwatt per centimeter square, which is not quite enough because.

So I I believe that it's due to the the fabrication technique. So what I followed it's like a simple like a drop cost method. So which is quite not uniform on your, on your, on your.

Recently, people start to achieve more than 1000 milliwatt.

On your electrode surface like a substrate like carbon pepper. So I hope that the the the from this kind of thing you do like a more systematic robotic preparation like robotic cube to spray coated on your GD, then you can get uniform coating. Then I hope that that will solve the system level problem. So I hope it's easy, but still I need to work on those two.

Action 1 is how we can precisely control the coordination and 2nd is how.

Perfectly, I can, I can, I can prepare my electrode MEA system.

Have 1/4 fusion. That's the.

For the fuel cell and for the the the energy converter CO2 as you mentioned, it's a water and salt. As I mentioned, it's literally new topic. So it just probably 5 to 6 or 7 is world that the term is indigenous. So the whatever I'm using currently, it's highly.

High cost salt, the potassium triplate because it's a fluorine, so I hope that I can create the similar kind of environment like solution structure with low cost systems such as potassium.

Uh, format, which is relatively cheaper than potassium triplet. Then I can scale up the electrolyte and then I can, I, I can demonstrate that scale up electrolyte for, for electrochemical sewer detection using the typical flow cell system in order to achieve the industrial level current density and selectivity and stability. So currently that's the, the thing it's, it's missing because of be really worried about the cost of.

Triple AI hope that if I.

Fine, sorry, find the cheaper salt, then I can create the similar kind of environment. I can use them in the electrolysis, then I can easily scale up the system. So I hope that these two direction I want to focus at vap.

Thank you, Professor. Your response highlights a clear pathway for addressing scalability challenges in both fuel cells and energy conversion systems. The focus on optimizing synthesis methods for catalysts and electrolyte systems while balancing cost considerations demonstrates an understanding of practical constraints and commercialization goals. Let’s shift slightly. Teaching is a significant aspect of this professorship. Could you describe your experience in teaching theory and laboratory courses, particularly in areas like electrochemistry or materials science? How do you typically approach structuring these courses for graduate or undergraduate students?

OK so to be honest I'm a post doc researcher so so far no teaching experience but I attend several courses like from top level.

People in my field. So my approach is always.

Very plus experiment or yeah, the real life hands on experience kind of course I want to decide. So for example, as I mentioned the material science or the Electro catalyst, so electrochemistry.

So.

It's hard to teach those equation like Nancy equation or whatever father's equation people probably doesn't catch them, so I want to.

Like to teach them in the laboratory, OK, this is the other chemical cell whatever I teach you in the thought you in the the classroom. So this is the things looks like so.

This way that the students can easily understand the problem, understand the, the, the, the concept and they can understand the problem. And then I can push them to read like research based articles and, and, and how we can diagnose those kind of problem. Mostly the research based. The second one is a material science. Material science is it's about not only studying the material, right? It's it's about how they can characterize.

So I want to design a course and the material science, it's just not only like, OK, like explaining all the material characterization like the face and other stuffs and how they they're melting point or if it is solid, it's a melting point. It's the liquor. It's there are other properties like the viscous, but I want to teach them how you can measure it like in the lab. So in that way the the people not only understand the the concept, but also they know how to do.

That experiment so in this way the people relate these kind of.

Problem with the real life and then probably they, they, they they can understand more easily than the just the word writing things. So I want to create a course mostly the research based.

Uh, coursework, so people not only learn from the, from the theoretical point of view, like whatever I teach in the classroom, but also the same problem in the laboratory skills. So they can easily understand and they find the, find the problem themselves and that they can diagnose themselves. So which means that they can probably once they finish their course and then they will, I want to them to be the top of the, the, the.

That goes they they should know, even though they're very little, but even very depth. That's my like I I just want to create a course systems like mostly research plus teaching based and.

But like I, I want to like organize the seminar based on that particular search topic. Like I can invite people OK given the talk on this particular topic so people easily understand what what I am talking in the classroom. So those things and given the mini project and group project. So this will help them.

To understand the things even more easily. And that's my like the vision of teaching.

Understood, Professor. Your emphasis on integrating hands-on laboratory experience alongside traditional theoretical coursework demonstrates a thoughtful and impactful approach to teaching. Inspiring students with practical applications and research exposure aligns well with the expectations of fostering depth and innovation in scientific understanding. Let’s turn now to your experience with guiding student projects and research. While you mentioned limited teaching exposure, could you elaborate on any instances during your postdoctoral work where you have mentored or collaborated with students or junior researchers? How did you approach supporting their growth

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, sure. So during my first post doc at RTN National Taiwan University, I, I was the team leader of electronic subgroup in my under my Pi. So I I dated.

Four biggest student like a mentoring it's not gated, it's a mentoring. So two of them already, three of them already graduated so so that's the the so I got my corresponding authorship papers. So I have really, really, really high level mentoring experience not only in the PA student, but also at a master and undergraduate level was like, for example, currently.

At at K system I am mentoring 2 undergrad and one master student.

The masters already graduated now he got a job in some company. Now I'm uh, like, uh, like uh, I'm mentoring 2 undergrad student. Yeah. So the my main job is mentoring means that guide them to, to understand the things and teach them from the beginning like basic the instrumentation to like how we can measure it, how we can problem solve something like so I can. I can guide them in that way, then they can design their own project and then discuss with me.

Discuss with me it's OK, this is what their idea then I just OK then I can ask all the cross questions and then they can answer then I can approve them. OK, you are good to go. So I already have really good mental experience, not only the biggest level, but also master on regret level. So I hope that I can I can handle the things very well so I can just guide them and in the writing their papers and submitting that abstract to the.

Says and.

And then then there the group meeting report so I can just mentoring them gave them how how we can do that.

Yeah.

Thank you, Professor. Your extensive mentoring experience across diverse academic levels demonstrates a strong ability to guide student research and development, fostering their academic growth effectively. Your direct involvement in helping students with instrumentation, project design, and publication clearly aligns with the expectations of mentorship in this professorship. Let’s now move to communication and teaching approach. How do you ensure clarity and engagement when conveying complex scientific concepts to students, particularly those new to subjects like electrochemistry or materials characterization?

So this like a proper.

The complex system, yes, Alchemy system complex someone like very new. So my approach would be.

Start with the basic.

So what is electron? So I can start from there and what is the chemistry? I can start from there. And then how those things mesh together and become electrochemistry, then the electrochemistry. So this way people, the students understand easily. OK, the electrochemistry actually comes from those two words. Then I can just it's, it's about like.

Literally basic.

Like listening them, so if they are really struggle then OK, I can spend time mostly with the students who doesn't understand like special class and then office work those kind of approach I can put more effort towards them. So in that way they can just probably understand your.

Faster in that way, I think and the similar for the material science, material characterization. So I always believe that.

Teaching in the slow way and understand and communicating with them is the is the key to to like teach any concept.

OK, so I just want to share one of my biggest work which is published in Nano Energy, which is impact us more than 17, I think so now and it's cited close to 50 times right now. So this is the, I think it's the best work I've done so far. I I really feel proud so that I demonstrated that COBOL datum with the three nitrogen 01 sulfur shows better hydrogen evolution reaction than the the any other catalyst at that time.

Understood, Professor. Your commitment to breaking down complex concepts to first principles while offering personalized support through office hours and special sessions reflects a thoughtful and inclusive teaching approach. It demonstrates your dedication to ensuring all students, regardless of their level of familiarity, can effectively grasp the subject matter. To deepen the discussion, let's explore your research publications. Could you share an example of one of your published papers in a reputed journal and discuss what makes it significant in advancing the field of electrochemistry or materials science?

So I hope that.

So this catalyst, it's capable to synthesis green hydrogen from water in a large scale in the future. So I hope that that's the one. I really feel proud of my publications. And apart from that, I met her students, right? I got 2.

Corresponding authorship papers which is also quite I really feel proud of those things one is for oxen reduction reaction and using dimetal catalyst so that's a dual atom single atom so I, I really.

We're proud of those stuff.

Thank you, Professor. Publishing in *Nano Energy* and demonstrating innovative catalysts like cobalt-doped systems is indeed commendable, especially with the promise of advancing green hydrogen production. The corresponding authorship papers also underscore your active leadership in research, particularly in catalytic applications. Next, let’s touch on your industry experience or consultancy projects. Have you had any direct collaborations with industry or undertaken projects that connect your research to practical, real-world applications? If so, could you provide an example?

Uh, I'm, I'm sorry. So, uh, uh, like, uh, the concept con consultancy is not in Taiwan or here. So I, I, I, I, I was not really like.

Uh, like, uh, directly involved in those kind of project because my project is mostly government based. Like in Taiwan, it's, it's a Moe project and here it's a DOE project. So which is like kind of government 1. So there is no direct connection to the industry, but I'm afraid so that I, I, I, I like, I, I don't have any like direct connection to the, the industry or the collaboration or anything.

But I hope that in India that's there are really high chances to consultants work or collaboration with industry as as like whatever because here at case our end. So I'm not in the position to take that decision. So if I am like like like a independent researcher, then I can.

Those direction like move both consultants and working closely with with industry to bring this whatever I said like copper basis over high renewalization. So I can work really close with the industry people how we can bring the system from lab skill to commercial scale. I hope I will do that.

Like.

Choose my things. So I I hope that at BATI can expand.

Thank you, Professor. It’s clear that your government-funded projects have led to impactful academic research, and you have a vision to expand into industry collaborations to translate your findings into commercial applications. Such aspirations align well with the goals of bridging academia and industry. Lastly, let me ask about your vision for future research. Beyond scaling and commercialization, are there any emerging areas or untapped challenges in electrochemistry or materials science that you hope to explore within this professorship?

Yes.

So the, the main thing, so, so far, whatever I'm doing, I or I'm, I did, it's a mostly simple reaction such as like water splitting into ox and hydrogen or seawater into some other product or oxen to water or hydrogen peroxide, those stuff, right? So at VIP, So what are I'm doing? Like I explained previously, I want to bring this system into from lab skill to the commercial system, but I want to expand.

My human resource scope beyond this kind of simple reaction.

Like.

I want to move from my.

My research like descending simple chemicals into more Electro organic synthesis which is quite booming because the organic molecules industry like for example amino acids. This is I think the billion dollar market right now. The current process is dependent on the enzymatic system to synthesize amino acid from the the the the starting product. So I want to introduce electrochemistry.

Through that kind of system I can make.

Amino acids out of.

Nitrate or some other waste which is we are always which with with we.

Category them as harmful for us nitrate or nitrate or nitrate as a gas with some organic moiety so I can make a CN bond formation to synthesis amino acid and I I want to introduce a similar concept CN conformation for urea process current process which is in a Jackson sensitive so I want to couple.

Co reduction of CO2 plus nitrate or some other nitrogen based system and combine them to make a urea then this.