Brief biodata

Prof. A. Kumar obtained his M. Tech and Ph.D. degree from IIT, Kanpur in Material Science. He had done masters in Physics with Electronics as specialization from Meerut University. His research interest involve Materials Science/Condensed Matter Physics: Polymer Electrolytes and Conducting Polymers. He was a faculty member of the department of physics from 1999 till his last breath on April 6, 2020.

Research

Our research is focused on different properties of conducting polymer nanostructures and polymer electrolytes. The work involves synthesizing and characterizing of conducting polymer-based nanostructures and nanocomposites for sensing and biomedical applications. Studies on electrical transport properties of graphene and Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDCs) based conducting polymer nanostructures for high performance supercapacitorelectrode applications are also in our domain of research. The group is also focusing on developing polymer electrolytes based on ionic liquids and Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) for applications in rechargeable batteries. To gain an insight as to how ionic conductivity in polymers can be understood in terms of the dynamic aspects of local structure, including changes in coordination number and in the distribution of electronic charge is the prime interest. Modification of conducting polymer nanostructures and polymer electrolytes upon Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation is one of our research interests.

Selected List of Publications

• D. Saikia and A. Kumar, Ionic Conduction in P(VDF-HFP)/PVDF-(PC+DEC)-LiClO₄ Polymer Gel Electrolytes, Electrochim. Acta. 49 (16) 2581-2589 (2004).
• M. Deka, A.K. Nath and A. Kumar, Effect of dedoped (insulating) polyaniline nanofibers on the ionic transport and interfacial stability of poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) based composite polymer electrolyte membranes, J. Membrane Science 327(1-2) 188-194 (2009) .
• Somik Banerjee, Jyoti P Saikia, A Kumar and B K Konwar, Antioxidant activity and haemolysis prevention efficiency of polyaniline nanofibers, Nanotechnology 21 045101 (2010) .
• A Kumar, Somik Banerjee, Jyoti P Saikia, and B K Konwar, Swift heavy ion irradiation induced enhancement in the antioxidant activity and biocompatibility of polyaniline nanofibers, Nanotechnology 21 175102 (2010).
  a. Highlighted by Nature India “Heavy ion bath” (doi:10.1038/nindia.2010.52)
  b. Cited in nanotechweb “Engineering the properties of electroactive polymers”
  
• Chandrani Nath, A. Kumar, Kun-Zai Syu, Yung-Kang Kuo, Heat conduction in conducting polyaniline nanofibers, Appl. Phys. Lett., 103 121905 (2013).