Engineering Years Experience

Amod Kumar

**** * ******* ***** *** Apt ***, Chicago, IL 60616

Email: ********@****.***.*** Cell: +1-312-***-****

Highly motivated and goal-oriented chemical engineering PhD graduate with 6 years experience in material

science, chemical/electrochemical engineering, catalysis, inorganic material formulation and characterization.

Skills

• Material synthesis and design:

- Sol-gel, solvothermal/hydrothermal, co-precipitation, supercritical methods to synthesize high surface

area, high conductivity metal oxides for catalysis/electrocatalysis.

- Membrane casting and Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) fabrication.

• Analytical techniques:

- Material characterization tools (XPS, EXAFS, TEM, XRD, SEM, EDAX, BET, FT-IR).

- Real and reciprocal-space characterization of the electronic and physio-chemical properties of inorganic

oxides via X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS), synchrotron-based technique at the Advanced Photon

Source (Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago).

• Electrochemical techniques:

- Extensive experience in electrochemical characterization including cyclic voltammetry, impedance

analysis, rotating ring disc electrode, potentiostatic and galvanostatic techniques, fuel cell testing

(polarization curves), polarization data (V-I curves) analysis.

Research Experience

• Graduate Research Assistant August 2009 - Present

Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL

Dissertation: Corrosion resistant catalyst support materials in electrochemical devices

- Provided fundamental insight into the processing-microstructure-property relationships in porous,

multi-functional materials and facilitated transformative changes in fuel cell electrocatalyst/electrode

composition and microstructure, leading to lower support corrosion, higher catalyst utilization,

improved kinetic and transport properties, and lower cost.

- Demonstrated that the metal-oxide based supports exhibit negligible loss in surface area upon 10,000

start-stop potential cycles, confirmed the outstanding stability of these materials with zero loss in

performance upon extensive potential cycling (compared to a > 5-fold loss in performance when state-

of-the-art carbon is used as electrocatalyst support).

• Summer Research Fellow May 2008 –

August 2008

Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India

Project Title: Preparation, Characterization and Analysis of novel anode electrocatalyst for Direct Ethanol Fuel

Cell

- Electrooxidation of ethanol on carbon supported Pt, Pt-Sn, Pt–Re and Pt–Re–Sn catalysts was

electrochemically studied through cyclic voltammetry (CV).

- Chemical characterization of catalysts was performed by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX),

Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD).

Industrial Experience

• Nicco Group, Kolkata, India January 2009 –

June 2009

Project Title: Detailed process engineering of a nitro-glycerine plant

Hydraulic calculations for the pumps were carried out, the datasheets for the equipments present in the utilities

were designed and the Process and Instrumentation Diagrams were finalized.

• Essar Oil Limited, Jamnagar, India May 2007-

July 2007

Study of unit operations and critical equipments in the Naphtha Hydrotreater and Continuous Catalytic Reformer

unit of a petroleum refinery.

Journal Publications

1. Amod Kumar and Vijay Ramani, “Ta0.3Ti0.7O2 electrocatalyst supports exhibit exceptional electrochemical

stability”, Accepted - Journal of the Electrochemical Society (2013)

2. Amod Kumar and Vijay Ramani, “RuO2-SiO2 mixed oxides as corrosion-resistant catalyst supports for

polymer electrolyte fuel cells”, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 138 (2013) 43

3. Chih-Ping Lo, Guanxiong Wang, Amod Kumar and Vijay Ramani, “TiO2–RuO2 electrocatalyst supports

exhibit exceptional electrochemical stability”, Applied Catalysis: B Environmental, (2013), 140 (2013) 133

4. Amod Kumar and Vijay Ramani, “Mixed Metal Oxides as Corrosion-Resistant Catalyst Supports for

Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells”, ECS Transactions, 50 (2013) 1669

5. Amod Kumar and Vijay Ramani, “Proton Conducting Silica Particles: Relation between Morphology and

Conductivity”, ECS Transactions, 41 (2011) 875.

6. Chih-Ping Lo, Guanxiong Wang, Amod Kumar and Vijay Ramani, “RuO2•xH2O-TiO2 as catalyst supports

for PEM fuel cells”, ECS Transactions, 41 (2011) 1249

7. Chih-Ping Lo, Amod Kumar and Vijay Ramani, “RuxTi1-xO2 as catalyst support for PEM Fuel Cell”, ECS

Transactions, 33 (2010) 493

8. Amod Kumar and Vijay Ramani, “Platinum supported on Ta0.3Ti0.7O2 catalysts for improved durability in

polymer electrolyte fuel cell”, under preparation (2013)

Conference Presentations

C1. “Ta modified TiO2 supports exhibit exceptional durability in polymer electrolyte fuel cells”

October 27-November 1, 2013 (Accepted), 224th Electrochemical Society (ECS) Meeting San Francisco,

CA

C2. “Mixed Metal Oxides as Corrosion-Resistant Catalyst Supports for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells ”

October 7-12, 2012, 222nd Electrochemical Society (ECS) Meeting Honolulu, Hawaii

C3. “Proton Conducting Silica Particles: Relation between Morphology and Conductivity”

October 9-14, 2011, 220th Electrochemical Society (ECS) Meeting Boston, MA

C4. “RuxTi1-xO2 as catalyst support for PEM Fuel Cell”

October 10-15, 2010, 218th Electrochemical Society (ECS) Meeting Las Vegas, NV

Education

• Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL

December 2013

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Chemical and Biological Engineering, GPA: 3.81/4

• Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India

June 2009

Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) Honors, Chemical Engineering, GPA: 8.77/10

Awards & Memberships

• Student travel grant award for the 224th Electrochemical Society (ECS) Meeting, 2013

• Won the best poster award titled “Non-carbon supports in polymer electrolyte fuel cells” at IIT,

Chicago poster competition, 2013

• ECS Awarded Student Membership, Awarded by the Electrochemical Society (ECS), 2010 –

Current

• Dean’s Fellowship for outstanding performance as a graduate student at IIT, Chicago 2009-2010

• Summer Research Fellowship at Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. Awarded by

Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), May-July 2008

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