Research

Traditional water electrolysis suffers from some of the critical factors, such as, high input electricity and hence high running cost of electrolysis plants, noble metal-based catalysts. In addition, water electrolysis offers oxygen at the anode terminal, which is of very low value. Hence alternative approaches are attempted to bring down the overall cost factors. Water electrolysis with some of the easily oxidizable organic molecules, like glycerol, has been attempted and it brings down the input electricity substantially for such electrolyser plants. In addition, oxidation of organic molecules leads to value added products, which should lead to overall price reduction of green H2 due to value added products formation. More such approaches are being evaluated currently with different organic molecules. 

Publications: 

• J. Jana, S. Chowdhury, A. Saha, S. G. Kang, S. H. Hur, and C. S. Gopinath, Concurrent glycerol oxidation and hydrogen production on Ce-Co-oxide/Carbon for sustainable biomass valorization, Chem. Eng. J. 535, #175707 (2026). 

• S. Rajendran, S. Saju, T. Mathew, and C. S. Gopinath, Concurrent utilization of e- and h+ for water splitting to H2 and biomass component to value added products: Sustainable solar driven photocatalysis towards meeting SDG7, 12 and 13, Chemical Communications 61, 16738-16769 (2025).

•  Anjana Sajeevan, Nijash Neermunda, Sampath Karingula, Pooja, Soumyajit Jana, Ravindar Pawar, Yugender Goud Kotagiri*, “In-Situ Synthesis of Bimetallic Selenides on Green Porous Carbon: Density Functional Theory-Proven Electrocatalysts for Efficient Water Splitting,” Materials Advances, 7, 1478-1494, 2025.

• Sampath Karingula, Shekher Kummari, Yugender Goud Kotagiri, Thirupathi Bhookya, K V Gobi, “Development of 1D-Metalloid-Induced Highly Porous Carbon Nanofiber Conjugated with PEDOT Polymer Through Concurrent Selenization of ZIF-67 for Energy Storage and Green H2 Production,” Small, 2400812, 2024.

• Roychowdhury S, Ali MM, Sundararajan T, Rao GRThermochemical hydrogen production using Rh/CeO2/g-Al2O3 catalyst by steam reforming of ethanol and water splitting in a packed bed reactor, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 46(37), 0360-3199, 2021.

• R.B.Harikrishna, Hemagni Deka, T. Sundararajan, G. Ranga Rao, Green hydrogen production by water splitting using scrap metals at high temperature International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, VL 49, Part A, 2024.

• Swarnkar P, Sarfo DK, Pannu AS, Rainey T, Sundararajan T, O'Mullane, AP Co-Electro deposition of Nanostructured Ce-NiOx on Stainless-Steel Substrates for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction under Alkaline Conditions, Advanced Materials Technologies , 2365-709X, 2021.

• Jithesh, P. K.; Sundararajan, T.; Das, Sarit K. Experimental investigation of dry feed operation in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell  JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES,  AUG 15 2014, VL 260, Pages: 243-250.

Sponsored Projects & Collaboration:

• IIT Palakkad is actively involved in R&D activities under the DST funded Kerala Hydrogen Valley

• IIT Palakkad, IPTIF and ANERT Kerala collaborative proposal is under consideration for funding thtough MNRE as a part of the  National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM)