Research Projects

The research proposal aims to increase the dependency on renewable energy sources for sustainable industrial processes and products. It focuses on HCl electrolysis, a high-energy-consuming process used for producing high purity chlorine by recycling industrial waste HCl. High purity chlorine is crucial for the preparation of chlorine-free end materials like polyurethanes, polycarbonates, and chlorinated polymers. However, HCl and chloride salts are produced during synthesis, making electrocatalysis an intelligent way to valorize the HCl produced. Electrocatalysis is a promising technique for converting industrial waste HCl to chlorine, but it has significant power consumption and safety concerns due to H₂ gas production at the cathode. An alternative solution is replacing H₂ production with oxygen depolarized cathode (ODC) and retaining Cl₂ evolution at the anode, resulting in energy savings of approximately 30%. The cost of establishing HCl electrolysis plants is high, leading small scale industries in developing countries to quench the produced HCl with lime. Two important challenges in this area are developing sustainable catalysts from earth-abundant non-noble metals that are eco-friendly, cost-effective, stable, and exhibit heightened activity while simultaneously producing chlorine. The research proposes developing a novel methodology using scanning electrochemical microscopy, considering transition metal oxide nanomaterials as reaction centers in ODC, and fabricating thin, crack-free electrodes using electrodeposition/electroless deposition techniques. In-situ fast screening electrochemical technique with high spatial resolution using ultra micro-electrodes by SECM will be used to analyze the influence of microscopic features in a chlorine-rich electrolyte during the reaction.