Two Days Indo Norway Workshop on Functional Materials for Energy Technology (FMET-2019)

Scope of the workshop The functional materials are deemed important or to have a high impact based on theparticular properties that make them suitable for applications in which they used. Theworld’s energy economy is built upon a base of various materials and the sustainable energyeconomy is more critically dependent on a wider array of functional materials with theirproperties beyond current state-of-the-art. The research and development of advancedfunctional materials and capacity to shape and utilize their properties enable scientists andengineers to develop energy technologies to power our economies and lifestyles. Materialsresearch and their applications in environmental friendly energy generation, storage andutilization are becoming important in the current global scenario of mitigating theenvironmental damage and satisfy the energy demand. So, this two day workshop will covervarious aspects of functional materials used for renewable energy technologies.

Chief PatronProf. A. P. Dash, Vice Chancellor, CUTN, India

Patron Dr. S. Bhuvaneswari, Registrar, CUTN, India

Co-PatronsCMA. P. Palani, Finance officer, CUTN, IndiaProf. A. Raghupathy, Controller of Examination, CUTN, India

ConvenersProf. P. Ravindran, CUTN, IndiaProf. Helmer Fjellvåg, UiO, NorwayProf. Anja Olafsen Sjåstad, UiO, Norway

Co-ConvenersProf. L. Kavitha, CUTN, IndiaProf. V. Madhurima, CUTN, India

Organizing SecretariesDr. K . Venkata Saravanan, CUTNDr. K. Chandra Sekhar, CUTNDr. I. Paneer Muthuselvam , CUTN

Important deadlinesRegistration beginsRegistration ends

For further details:Prof. P. Ravindran, Convener, FMET2019, SCANMAT Centre, Department of Physics, CUTN Thiruvarur-610005,Tamil Nadu, India.Phone: 04366-277275, +91-8300178007, +91-9488568068, +91-8300115029

Email: cutnphysicsevents@gmail.com

Organized by SCANMAT Centre & Department of Physics, Central University of Tamil Nadu, India in collaboration with University of Oslo, Norway

Venue: 2nd floor, Library Seminar Hall, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, India23-24 September, 2019

Sponsored by

Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (SIU) Research Council of Norway, Norway

SCANMAT Centre and Department of Physics, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur

Invited SpeakersProf. Helmer Fjellvåg, University of Oslo, NorwayProf. Anja Olaf Sjåstad, University of Oslo, NorwayProf. P. Ravindran, SCANMAT, CUTNDr. K. Venkata Saravanan, Department of Physics, CUTNDr. K. Chandra Sekhar, Department of Physics, CUTNDr. I. Paneer Muthuselvam, Department of Physics, CUTNDr. Srinivasan Sampath, Dept. of Mater. Sci., CUTNDr. Dr. Vittal B Gudimetla, Department of Chemistry, CUTNDr. Lokanath Patra, Department of Physics, IIT MadrasMr. Abhijth S Parackal , Department of Physics, CUTN

Mode of paymentThrough SBI Collect:• Click on:

https://www.onlinesbi.com/sbicollect/icollecthome.htm

• Click on ‘Proceed’ Button• Select State: ‘Tamil Nadu’• Select: ‘Educational

Institutions’ and click on ‘Go’ button

• Select: ‘Central University of Tamil Nadu’

• Click on ‘Submit’ button• Select Category: ‘CUTN-

Seminar/Workshop/Conference Registration Fee’

Registration:The online registration form is available at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe2QZrDBmSXIsqZZc9dloIHEmO71W_QTURYdTUfNbiHQ_EVjQ/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1

Registration Fee:Outside ParticipantsPost Docs/Research Scholars/Students: Rs. 200/- (includes lunch)

CUTN ParticipantsPost Docs/Research Scholars/Students: Rs. 100/-

: 16th Sept. 2019: 21th Sept. 2019

TreasurerDr. M. Ponmurugan, CUTNDr. R. Arun, CUTN

Technical CoordinatorMr. A. Sulthan Ibrahim, CUTN

Local OrganizersDept. of PhysicsDr. Sathish SugumaranDr. AravinthanDr. NallamuthuDr. B. ShanmugaveluDr. KurumurthyDr. Saranya LakshmiDr. Anil Kumar

SCANMATDr. A. KrishnamoorthyDr. G. KruthikaDr. R. RajivgandhiMs. S. KiruthikaMs. Sreedevi P. DMs. Anu Maria AugustineMs. R. VarunaaMr. Mukesh K. ChoudharyMr. Vishnu SudarsananMr. Suresh R

REPORT

With the aim of promoting awareness about advanced functional materials among the

students, two day workshop on “Functional Materials for Energy Technology (FMET- 2019)

was jointly organized by SCANMAT Centre & Department of Physics, Central University of

Tamil Nadu, India in collaboration with University of Oslo, Norway; on 23rd and 24th of

September 2019 at Conference hall, Library of Central University of Tamil Nadu. 80 students

from CUTN and 70 from nearby institutions participated in the event.

The workshop had 10 interactive sessions with 10 speakers. Prof. Helmer Fjellvåg, Prof. Anja

Olafsen Sjåstad, (Department of Chemistry and Centre for Materials Science and

Nanotechnology,

University of Oslo,

Norway). Prof. P.

Ravindran, Head,

SCANMAT Centre,

Dr. I. Panneer

Muthuselvam, DST -

INSPIRE Faculty,

Dr. K. Venkata

Saravanan, Assistant

Professor, Dr. K.

Chandra Sekhar, UGC – Assistant Professor were from the Department of Physics, CUTN.

Dr. Vittal B Gudimetla, Assistant Professor was from Department of Chemistry, CUTN. Dr.

Srinivasan Sampath, Assistant Professor was from Department of Materials Science, CUTN.

In order to encourage students, Dr. Lokanath Patra (Research Associate, Department of

Physics, IIT Madras), former doctoral student of Prof. P. Ravindran and Mr. Abhijth S

Parackal, former IMSc student of Department of Physics, CUTN were invited to deliver speech

on their specialized fields.

To conduct this workshop in a successful manner, many people

made notable contributions. Most important of them was Prof. A.

P. Dash, Vice- Chancellor, CUTN, Dr. S. Bhuvneswari, Registrar,

CUTN, CMA. P. Palani, Finance officer, CUTN, Prof. A.

Raghupathy, Controller of Examination, CUTN. Conveners of this

event were Prof. P. Ravindran, CUTN, India, Dr. R. Vidya, Anna

University, India, Prof. Helmer Fjellvåg, UiO, Norway, and Prof.

Anja Olafsen Sjåstad, UiO, Norway. Co-Conveners were Prof. L.

Kavitha, Head & CUTN and Prof. V. Madhurima, CUTN.

Organizing Secretaries were Dr. K. Venkata Saravanan, CUTN, Dr.

K. Chandra Sekhar, CUTN and Dr. I. Paneer Muthuselvam, CUTN.

Treasurers of this event were Dr. M. Ponmurugan, CUTN, and Dr.

R. Arun, CUTN. Technical Co-ordinator behind this workshop was

Mr. A. Sulthan Ibrahim, CUTN. The organizing committee was

Inaugural function started with prayer

Honorable VC lighting

the lamp

constituted by two groups. One group of the guest faculties of Department of Physics; Dr.

Sathish Sugumaran, Dr. Aravinthan, Dr. Nallamuthu, Dr. B. Shanmugavelu, Dr. Kurumurthy,

Dr. Saranya Lakshmi and Dr. Anil Kumar, and other group of SCANMAT Centre students,

Dr. A. Krishnamoorthy, Dr. G. Kruthika, Dr. R. Rajivgandhi, Ms. S. Kiruthika, Ms. Sreedevi ,

P.D, Ms. Anu Maria Augustine, Ms. R. Varunaa, Mr. Mukesh K. Choudhary, Mr. Vishnu

Sudarsanan, and Mr. Suresh. R.

The first day of the workshop, 23rd September

2019, started with the registration of the

participants. The inaugural session started with

the prayer song sung by Ms. B. Sivarenjani and

Meera S, IMSc students. This was followed by

lighting the traditional ‘Kuthuvilakku’ (lamp)

by dignitaries such as Prof. A. P. Dash, Vice-

Chancellor, CUTN, Prof. Helmer Fjellvåg,

Prof. Anja Olafsen Sjåstad, UiO, Norway, Dr.

A. Ragupathy, Controller of Examination,

CUTN, Prof. P. Ravindran, Prof. L. Kavitha and

Prof. V. Madhurima of CUTN. Prof. P.

Ravindran, Convener welcomed the gathering.

Esteemed Vice-Chancellor, A. P. Dash was

honoured by Prof. Ravindran with garland.

Next, Inaugural speech was given by the Vice-

Chancellor

He congratulated Prof. P. Ravindran & his group and Department of Physics for arranging this

workshop. He thanked Prof. Helmer Fjellvåg, Prof. Anja Olafsen Sjåstad, for their commitment

and contribution. He briefed how material science is so important in every stage of human

evolution through Iron Age, Bronze Age, and Silicon Age, etc. He discussed how it is

applicable in the case of Renewable energy technology and hoped the workshop will bring new

avenues for research in future. Prof. Helmer honored V.C. with shawl and memento. Then Prof.

L. Kavitha gave key-note address describing the importance of material science in our daily

life. She thanked the

convener for playing key

role in organizing such an

event through Physics

Department and sustaining

the collaboration with

Norway's research group.

It is followed by a

prominent speech given by

one of the conveners, Prof.

Helmer Fjellvåg. He started

his talk briefing his

collaboration with Prof. P.

Dignitaries lighting the lamp

Inaugural address

Ravindran. Then he discussed

the main source of energy of

Norway i.e. hydropower and

fossil fuels. He briefed about

Norway’s energy generation and

the following few lines

constitute his talk- ‘Norway has

big fossil fuel production, which

is even exported to mainland

Europe. In that type of energy

generation, the main challenges

are high carbon footprints and emission of carbon dioxide. Electric cars were introduced and

it became a great success in Norway. Also, the usage of these cars is going in exponential rate,

since government introduced subsidy and separate lane for these cars’. Further he told that this

workshop aims to create a new platform for developing novel functional materials. He

proposed workshop be a bridge between thought experiments and practical experiments. Prof.

P. Ravindran presented shawl and memento to Prof. Helmer Fjellvåg. Prof. Anja Olafsen

Sjåstad was honoured by Prof. L. Kavitha with shawl and memento.

Special Address was given by Dr. A. Ragupathy, COE. Throughout the speech he asserted the

importance of renewable energy and the need for sustainable development. He mentioned Prof.

P. Ravindran as ‘Tree man’ of CUTN for initiating tree plantation throughout the university

when he was the Registrar in charge. Prof. Anja Olafsen Sjåstad honoured COE with shawl

and memento. Prof. V. Madhurima proposed the vote of thanks and the session was concluded

with a photo session followed by a tea break.

The first talk of the workshop was given by Prof. Helmer Fjellvåg on “New insight to

intermetallic MnAs based systems and magnetocalorics”. He discussed the structural property

and spin state of MnAs. TP (temperature-pressure) diagram and HT (magnetic field –

temperature) diagram was discussed while explaining phase transition. He discussed the

driving force of transition

(formation of bond).

Chemical pressure was

introduced to MnAs using

Ti and Cr substrate. This is

done so that

magnetocaloric effect is

introduced. Introducing Ti

and Cr led to like changes

structure and magnectic

property. He gave basic

understanding about

magnetocaloric effect and discussed how it will be useful in solid state refrigeration and its

practical application of space cooling which is of great significance in India.

Participants

Prof. Helmer Fjellvåg giving speech

During the questions’ session, many doubts were raised and that were as follows. Asst. Prof.

K. C. Sekhar asked “How does XRD tell about the magnetic property of those materials?”,

Asst. Prof. Preethi Meher asked “How λm graph give details about homogeneity of those

materials?”, Dr. I. Panneer Muthuselvam asked “Whether the hysteresis loop is only present

for ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic coupling in the material could also show that nature?

Again Asst. Prof. Preethi Meher asked “How to calculate unpaired spins from the graph λm Vs

TN graph?” The student participants raised questions like “In what trend spin transition occurs

in the material with respect to temperature and pressure?”,“What is the difference in the

product got through solid state and plasma synthesis?” etc along with doubts regarding “MnAs

Phase diagram”. After discussing all the above-mentioned doubts, the session was concluded

at 1.30 pm for lunch.

After lunch, Prof. Anja Olafsen Sjåstad gave her lecture on “Oxyhydrides: A new class of

materials”. At first she started by discussing single anion compounds and role of cation

substitution on influencing the functional properties of LnNiO3. Then she talked about mixed

anion compounds. Also, how bandgap, local degree of freedom, local asymmetry, bonding,

anion diffusion, dimension can be varied by cation substitution. She told that compared to

oxide, oxyfluoride, oxynitrides, etc, the reports on known oxyhydroxide compounds are less.

Later, she explained about

Ruddleson Popper perovskite

compounds with n = 1, 2, 3

and ∞. Then she explained

the high-pressure synthesis

namely flux approach to

produce the required

compound Ln2LiHO3 and

characterization such as

TGA-DSC, Neutron

diffraction, XRD (Cell volume w.r.t. temperature) to confirm the phase formation of the

material. She also discussed the bonding analysis and mobility obtained through computational

modeling and compared it with experimental work using neutrons in the sample La2LiHO3 and

LaSr2Fe3HyO10-x. Then the session was opened for questions and they are as follows. Dr. I.

Panner muthuselvam asked “how much flux is taken for the synthesis and is it necessary to

choose flux for preparing the materials?”; students also raised their doubts on “stability of these

oxyhydroxide materials and the relation between chemical and thermodynamic stability”, and

queried over “how to make perovskite compounds with n = 2, 3 ?” After 10 minutes of

discussion, this talk was over at 3.35 pm.

Prof. Anja Olafsen Sjåstad giving speech

Next, Prof. P. Ravindran gave a lecture titled “Importance and current research on Functional

Materials”. He expressed his views on environmental issues due to population explosion. In

brief he told about energy- related research fields such as photocatalyst, solar cell, and

thermoelectric

materials. He told that

AsP – GaAs

heterostructure material

is a good solar cell

material. His group has

expertise in 2D material

photocatalyst for water

splitting and he

discussed requirements

for choosing such

materials. One of such materials is C3N4/C2N and it has high optical absorption. He talked

about the impact of isoelectronic substitution on this material over photocatalytic property.

Further he talked about solar cell field and the challenges to be overcomed to make high-

efficiency solar cells such as toxicity of lead in the benchmark compound CH3NH3PbI3. Also,

he discussed the need for subHe throw light on the thermoelectric effect of Half Heusler alloys

and how multinary substitution on TiCoSb affect the electronic and transport properties. Also,

how one can change two metals to semiconductor by alloying. During question session, Asst.

Prof. Prabha Vadivelu asked “Is there any photocatalytic 2D material containing Mn?” and “Is

there any relation between photocatalytic activity and voltage?”. Next, Asst. Prof. Vittal Babu

Gudimetla asked “Whether Phosphorene, being very reactive, is isolated or not?”. One of the

student participants asked “Triple bonded Nitrogen in C2N is very strong, therefore how the

breakage of N from the material is happening?”. The session was over at 4.40 pm and he was

honoured by Prof. Helmer Fjellvåg with shawl and memento. Next, Tea break was given for

participants

The fourth invited talk was presented by Asst. Prof. Vittal B. Gudimetla on the topic “Copper-

NHC mediated C-O catalysis and mechanistic studies” at 4.55 pm. He talked about the

importance of catalyst and requirements for a good catalyst. In his talk, he discussed NHC-N

hetero carbene catalyst. He told how Cu

substitution has improved the

performance of the catalyst. In his work,

he had used Iodobenzene and phenol as

precursor. The product formed was ring

structures with C-O-C bond. He changed

the precursor from iodobenzene to

bromobenzene and found same product

was formed. Then, he explained that the

mechanism of this reaction is still on

debate. For understanding further, he

had done FTIR and HRMS studies. In

conclusion, he told that his group is

Prof. P. Ravindran giving speech

Asst. Prof. Vittal B. Gudimetla getting memento

working on catalyst and further about the importance of optimizing/improving catalysts in

today's’ energy requirement. He was honoured by Prof. P. Ravindran with shawl and memento

and the talk was over at 5.30 pm.

The final talk of that day was given by Asst. Prof. Srinivasan Sampath at 5.35 pm on the topic

“Bottom-up self-assembly and cold crystallization of tetrabenzofluorene molecules”. He

started with basics of self-assembly, self-assembled organic materials, supramolecular

chemistry etc. He gave examples of supramolecular material and briefed the metal-ligand and

pi-pi interaction in such classes of materials. He explained how tetrabenzofluorene (TBF)

molecules were synthesized. Further structure and property of that material were showed using

characterization techniques such as XRD,

absorption and

fluorescence spectra,

NMR spectroscopic

studies, AFM studies

etc. He introduced the

concept of cold

crystallization and its

classification to

audience. He

mentioned that

material showed

isothermal and non-

isothermal cold crystallization through DSC studies. He further explained that TBF molecules

self-assembled along with carbon materials created a class of hybrid materials, which can be

potentially used in optoelectronic devices as well as in thermal energy storage applications.

During the question session, Prof. Anja Olafsen Sjåstad asked “What are difficulties undergone

during the synthesis method?” and “Did he has any computational supporting analysis for

explaining the self-assembly mechanism? Next, Asst. Prof. Vittal B. Gudimetla asked “Is it

possible to form self-assembly through charge transfer process?”. One of the students asked

“What is the stability of the molecule after a guest molecule is attached to host molecule?”.

Prof. Anja Olafsen Sjåstad honored him with shawl and memento. Thus the first day of the

workshop came to an end with this session by 6.30 pm.

On 24th September 2019, the second day commenced with the talk on “Li- and Na- ion batteries

materials and properties” by Prof. Helmer Fjellvåg at 10.00 am. He began by making a general

comment on the electrification of vehicles. He stated that ‘the process is accelerated with a rate

much higher than one could believe. This change is happening with the technological

advancements in the field of battery materials. He then briefly discussed the relation between

modeling, characterization, and synthesis of battery materials and stressed how each part is

important in the development of new battery materials’. Professor then talked about the

possibility of emergence of other non-Li ion battery technologies as the Li-ion battery

technology is facing geopolitical challenges and the non-availability of Li resources with

respect to the increase in demand. He then moved on to the topic of safety of Li-ion batteries

and described the possible situations where a thermal runaway can happen inside a battery. He

then disclosed different types of cathode materials, the technical terms that describe the

Asst. Prof. Srinivasan Sampath giving speech

performance of battery, the importance of finding the activation barriers and diffusion

pathways in a cathode material by taking the example of Lithium iron phosphate etc. He also

pointed out the importance of graphene and graphene oxides as a conductive additive in lithium

iron phosphates and described different characterization techniques to analyze its performance.

He concluded the session by talking about different anode materials used in the field of battery

and presented a brief analysis of performance of each anode materials. This lecture was very

interactive that participants asked their doubts during the talk itself. Asst. Prof. Preethi Meher

asked “ In LiCoO2, charge on Co is +2, but how the charge transfer is ½ ?”. Then she asked

“Which factor of the material give rise to difference in specific capacity?”. The participants

were so eager to raise questions like “How does absorption coefficient study be helpful to study

the properties related to battery field?”, “What is the meaning of functional materials?”, “What

are the criteria to select electrolyte?” etc and about the safety issues of Li-ion batteries. This

session was closed at 11.20 am.

After a tea break, at 11.40 am, Dr. Paneer I. Muthuselvam started his lecture on “Topological

material: Searching for High Mobility”. At first, he introduced basics of topological materials

and special conducting property. He told how this behaviour is useful for lowering heat of

electronic devices. He discussed the difference between Hall effect, quantum Hall effect, and

quantum spin Hall effect. Further he mentioned the Nobel prize awarded in 1985 for the

discovery of the quantized Hall effect. He discussed 3D topological materials namely Dirac

and Weyl materials. He discussed the

characterization of few

such types of materials

namely: Dirac semimetal

ZrSiS, semimetal TaAs.

Also, he discussed Bose

Einstein Condensation

process in Gd2Te3 and thus

the occurrence of metallic

behaviour. Through

experimental observations,

he obtained carrier

concentration and mobility

and, he demonstrated the electrical behaviour of different materials. During question session,

Prof. P. Ravindran asked “What spin gap is and how it can be measured experimentally?”.

Asst. Prof. K. C. Sekar asked “How does hole contribute to magnetoresistance?”. Asst. Prof.

V. Rajendran asked “How calculated spin only moment differs from moment obtained through

Guoy Balance?”. One of the students asked “Why up and down spin go in the opposite direction

in a linear fashion?”.Further, Prof. P. Ravindran asked “Does this conduction pattern leads to

superconductivity?”. After this, he was honoured by Asst. Prof. K. Chandra Sekhar with

memento.

Dr. Paneer I. Muthuselvam

answering the participants

At 12.20 pm, Dr. K. Venkata Saravanan made a talk on “Preparation and properties of oxide

thermoelectrics”. He started explaining Seebeck, Peltier and Thomson effect at first. He gave

insights about the importance of thermoelectric material and basics about it such as Figure of

merit, requirements for good thermoelectric material. He discussed why semiconductor is

suitable for it and need of having a high temperature n-type thermoelectric material. Further,

he discussed his work on

‘Abnormal Grain Growth as a

Method To Enhance the

Thermoelectric Performance

of Nb-doped Strontium

Titanate Ceramics’. He

discussed that the use of fine

particle powders under these

conditions leads to abnormal

grain growth and thereby

bimodal grain size distribution

in SrTi0.8Nb0.2O3±δ ceramics.

He has done experimental studies and he found abnormal grain growth led to increasing Figure

of merit. Moreover, he discussed future prospects/further plans. During question session, Asst.

Prof. K. Chandra Sekhar asked “What happens to oxygen present in the compound at high

temperatures?” Asst. Prof. V. Rajendran asked “Whether oxygen excess raw material is used

during synthesis process to compensate the loss at high temperatures?”One of the participants

asked “What is the difference between sintering and annealing?”. He was honoured by Asst.

Prof. V.Rajendran and the session was closed for lunch.

The afternoon session began by 3.30 pm and the invited speaker was Dr. Lokanath Patra. He

gave a talk on “Spin crossover induced negative thermal expansion in BiCoO3 based

perovskites”. He told that negative thermal expansion is a rare phenomenon that is found in

few materials. This phenomenon can be applied to design modern technological devices. In the

talk he discussed some of the materials which possess negative thermal expansion and those

were designed computationally. He showed that the presence of lone pair can induce giant

negative thermal expansion in

perovskite like compounds. He

told the compounds PbTiO3-

BiCoO3 and BaTiO3-BiCoO3

induce negative thermal

expansion and expansion constant

can be varied as a function of

BiCoO3 concentration. He

showed that in these compounds

on transition from ferroelectric to

paraelectric phase, the Co3+ changes from a high spin state to a low spin state, which indicates

that this compound shows giant magnetoelectric effect. As the ferroelectric to paraelectric

phase change is associated with a decrease in volume, these compounds were predicted to be

a good candidate for negative thermal expansion. He also calculated the percentage of volume

Asst. Prof. K. Venkata Saravanan giving speech

Dr. Lokanath Patra giving speech

change as a function of BiCoO3 concentration and found that the change in volume increases

as a function of BiCoO3 concentration because of the increase in tetragonality for both the

series of materials. During question session, one of the participants asked “How much magnetic

field is applied to get the magnetic moment to be aligned in a high spin fashion? Does

temperature play any role in it?”. After this, Dr. I. Paneer Muthuselvam honoured him with a

memento.

At 3.50 pm Prof. Anja Olafsen Sjåstad gave a lecture on “Manipulation of Layered Materials

into functional nanostructures for catalysis”. While starting the lecture, she talked about

different classes of materials possessing layer structure and chemical bonding in them. She

went on talking liquid-based exfoliation methods and its need to form layer structured materials

by showing the example of graphite to graphene. Her talk extended to what is layered double

hydroxide, its synthesis and characterization to confirm those single layer LDH nanosheets.

Then she explained about the mechanism involved in the synthesis process such as

delamination and reconstruction of nanocomposites. Then she showed the stability and turn

over frequencies of three catalysts formed out of Ni/Mg(Al)O with different compositions.

Further she talked about Graphene-FeNi LDH for O2 evolution from H2O through

characterization such as linear sweep voltammogram and Tafel plot. Finally, she gave glimpse

of optoelectronic properties of Ruddelson-Popper phase of An+1Bn O3n+1. Students raised their

concern over the strategy involved in the restacking of LDHs. The session wind up at 4.20 pm.

Next, Mr. Abhijith S. Parackal gave an invited talk at 4.30 pm on “Machine learning in material

science”. The major points were relating to the recent innovations that machine learning has

brought to material science and the major reasons behind it. Special emphasis was given to the

versatility of machine learning, how data from various open-source databases can be harvested

using data mining techniques and can be feature engineered to obtain useful information that

otherwise would require

computationally expensive

first principle studies. Two

case studies were presented,

which dealt with feature

extracting at macroscopic and

microscopic levels. The talk

gave an intuitive overview of

the advantages of machine

learning techniques as a

complementary method that

one could utilize in this age of

Big Data. He was honoured by Prof. P. Ravindran with a memento and the session was closed

at 5.00 pm.

Mr. Abhijith S. Parackal giving speech

At 5.05 pm, Dr. K. Chandra Sekhar gave a lecture on the topic of “Relaxor Ferroelectric

Material for Energy Storage Application”. He started by explaining energy storage in

capacitors and then the difference between battery & capacitor. Next, he talked about

measuring methods of energy storage density for dielectric capacitors and different types of

dielectric materials. He explained

the difference between

ferroelectric and relaxor

ferroelectrics. Then he discussed

his paper titled “Composition

dependent xBa(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3–(1-

x)(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 bulk ceramics

for high energy storage

applications”. He explained the

property of that material with the

help of Raman measurements,

Dielectric measurements, P-E hysteresis measurements etc. Finally, he discussed his another

paper titled “High-Performance ferroelectric-dielectric multi-layered thin films for energy

storage capacitors”. During question session, one of the participants asked “What is

pseudocubic?”. After discussion, he was honoured by Dr. I. Paneer Muthuselvam and the

session was closed at 5.50 pm.

At 6.00 pm, the valedictory function started. Dr. Sathish Sugumaran, Guest faculty welcomed

the dignitaries namely Dr. S. Bhuvneswari, Registrar, CUTN, Prof. P. Ravindran, Prof. Helmer

Fjellvåg, Prof. Anja Olafsen Sjåstad, Prof. L. Kavitha, Asst. Prof. K. Chandra Sekhar to occupy

the dais. Dr. I. Paneermuthu Selvam consolidated the lectures form the first day till the last

session and its highlights. Next, Registrar gave valedictory speech by thanking Prof. P.

Ravindran for organizing such a workshop where he couldn’t find any separation between

Dr. K. Chandra Sekhar giving speech

Valedictory function

different streams. Then, Prof. Helmer Fjellvåg honored Registrar with shawl and Prof. Anja

Olafsen Sjåstad gave memento to her. It was followed by feedback speech by Prof. Helmer

Fjellvåg. He mentioned the importance of young generation and their responsibility to the

society. Also, he gave a take-home message that sustainable energy should be the motto for

future. Moreover, he thanked Prof. P. Ravindran and his co-

workers. Further he suggested that few talks were advanced

level to the participants, so more basics about that topic should

be mentioned in the slides. One of the participants gave

feedback that it was a good experience and thanked the

organizers for the successful completion of the workshop. Then

the certificates were handed over by Prof. Helmer Fjellvåg to

the participants. Prof. P. Ravindran proposed the vote of thanks.

He thanked the Vice-Chancellor and Registrar of CUTN for

their support and all the teaching & non-teaching faculty

members of physics department. He emphasized his gratitude to

library department for providing the lecture hall. He appreciated

all the student organizers who worked hard for the successful

completion of this workshop. He thanked Asst. Prof. K. Chandra

Sekhar and Mr. A. Sulthan Ibrahim for being an active hand

throughout the event. He appreciated all the speakers especially the Norwegian professors and

the participants for making this workshop a grand success. He acknowledged Dr Francis

Barclay, Media & Communication department and his crew for covering the entire workshop.

Especially he thanked electricians for their help during power break down. Finally, Prof. L.

Kavitha thanked the Registrar and Prof. P. Ravindran for organizing this workshop. With

national anthem, the two day workshop was brought to end.

Address regarding the

highlights of the workshop

Students receiving certificates from dignitaries

Participants of the workshop