Two-Dimensional Materials for Environmental Applications

Dr Neeraj Kumar is a researcher at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pretoria, South Africa. He is also visiting researcher in the Department of Chemical Sciences at the University of Johannesburg. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Johannesburg in 2017. His research interests are in the synthesis and processing of carbon and inorganic nanostructured materials and their nanocomposites for energy and environmental sustainability. His current research focuses on developing 2D nanomaterials such as graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides (viz. MoS2), MXenes, g-C3N4, h-BN and 2D MOFs for environmental applications, including water and wastewater treatments, adsorption, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, clean fuels and CO2 capture and utilization.Dr Rashi Gusain received her Ph.D. degree in Chemical Science from CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, India. In 2016, she started her first Postdoc at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India and later, she joined the group of Prof. Oleg Antzutkin at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. Currently, she is working with Prof. Suprakas Sinha Ray at the University of Johannesburg and also a visiting researcher at CSIR-Pretoria. Her expertise is in organic and inorganic synthesis, ionic liquids, nanomaterials, tribology, photocatalysis, CO2 capture and conversion and water purification. Her current research interest is the development of inorganic materials for photo-degradation of organic water contaminants and CO2 capture and conversion.

Professor Suprakas Sinha Ray is a chief researcher in nanostructured materials at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) with a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Calcutta in 2001 and director of the DST-CSIR Centre for Nanostructures and Advanced Materials. Ray’s current research focuses on advanced nanostructured materials and their applications. He is oneof the most active and highly cited authors in the field of polymer nanocomposite materials, and he has recently, been rated by Thomson Reuters as being one of the Top 1% most impactful and influential scientists and Top50 high impact chemists (out of 2 mil Chemists worldwide).

Prof. Ray is the author of 5 books, co-author of 3 edited books, 32 book chapters on various aspects of polymer-based nanostructured materials & their applications, and author and co-author of 330 articles in high-impact international journals, 30 articles in national and international conference proceedings. He also has 6 patents and 7 new demonstrated technologies shared with colleagues, collaborators and industrial partners. So far, his team commercialized 19 different products. His honors and awards include South Africa’s most Prestigious 2016 National Science and Technology Award (NSTF); Prestigious 2014 CSIR-wide Leadership award; Prestigious 2014 CSIR Human Capital development award; Prestigious 2013 Morand Lambla Awardee (top award in the field of polymer processing worldwide), International Polymer Processing Society, USA. He is also appointed as Extraordinary Professor, University of Pretoria and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, University of Johannesburg.