I enjoyed every aspect of my exchange program to Bergen university college, Bergen, Norway (now Western Norway University of Applied Sciences) under INCP mobility program. It was a great opportunity and good experience in working with researchers in overseas laboratories and learnt a lot about myself in the process.These research visitsalso gave me an exposure to the advanced tools used for synthesis, processing and characterization of nanocrystalline materials.

During this trip, I carried out my work on Cu2ZnSnS4 thin film nanostructures such as sphere, cubes and rods synthesized using sol gel technique were obtained by tuning the synthesis process.Copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) is a quaternary semiconducting compound which has received increasing interest since the late 2000’s for applications in solar cells. CZTS offers favorable optical and electronic properties similar to CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) making it well suited for use as a thin-film solar cell absorber layer, but unlike CIGS (or other thin films such as CdTe), CZTS is composed of only abundant and non-toxic elements.A new type of Inverted CZTS device structure ITO/AZO/ZnO/CdS/CZTS/C was fabricated. The fabricated solar cells exhibited good characteristics and the obtained efficiencies were encouraging. Also these CZTS thin film as a new photo cathode material replacing expensive platinum counter electrode in DSSC were also exploited.

My research trip thrice to Bergen, Norway under INCP/UTFORSK student mobility program between Coimbatore institute of technology, Coimbatore, India and Western Norway university of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway, was a very pleasant, beautiful and such a knowledge gaining research experience travel.

My research work was concentrated on modifications of photo anodes using different semiconducting materials and nano structures for DSSC’s (Dye Sensitized Solar Cells)by microwave assisted solvothermal Synthesis. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) are an efficient type of thin-film photovoltaic cell. This new class of advanced solar cell can be associated to artificial photosynthesis process due to the way in which it mimics nature’s absorption of light energy. Efficient Dye Sensitized solar cells (DSSC) were developed in 1991 by Professor Michael Graetzel and Dr Brian O’Regan at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), but the concept dates back to the 1960s and 70s. DSSCs are easy to manufacture with traditional roll-printing techniques, and is semi-transparent and semi-flexible, allowing a range of uses that are not applicable to rigid photovoltaic systems.

My research trip to Bergen University College, Bergen, Norway, during 21st May 2015 – 22nd July 2015 through INCP student mobility program signed between Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, India and Bergen University College, Bergen turned out to be successful one. This trip gave me a good exposure and experience in working with researchers in overseas lab.

During this visit, as a part of my research work, I synthesized and characterized tin titanate powders and films. Tin titante films and powders were prepared by Microwave, Hydrothermal and Dip – Coating methods. The SEM (Supra V55, ZEISS) images of the tin titanate powders obtained by microwave thermal methods showed needle shaped structures. Synthesis of tin titanate films were carried out by hydrothermal and dip – coating methods with different solvents. The EDAX analysis revealed that the prepared films had stoichiometric composition. The synthesized films were used to fabricate solar cells and the characteristics of the cells were studied using Keithley 2420 Source meter under illumination with an ORIEL Solar Simulator composed of 1000 W Xenon arc lamp and AM 1.5 G filters.

The production of DSSCs has not been undertaken in Norway before. To be able to start this project, it was therefore crucial to gain guidance from outside of Norway. This came from India. Since 2014, a partnership between Western Norway University of Applied Science (HVL) and Coimbatore Institute of Technology (CIT). I have spent two months at CIT to gain hands-on experience with the techniques and equipment.

My work was in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC). DSSC is a solar cell, which converts the energy from the sun into electrical current. One of its unique properties is that the light harvest component and the charge transfer component are two different structures. This is different from the commercial Si solar cell.An area of interest that developed was that of doping of the semiconductor, which could improve the performance of the DSSC. A semiconductor which has been widely used in DSSCs is TiO2. By doping TiO2 with metal and nonmetal atoms it is possible to alter the characteristics and improve the efficiency of the cell. Non-metals such as Nitrogen and Fluorine doped TiO2 has shown to be an excellent candidate to use in DSSCs.

My research trip to Western Norway University of Applied Science, Bergen through INCP student mobility program from Coimbatore Institute of Technology Coimbatore. It was a Pleasant and nice experience for me and this visit gave exposed me to the advanced tools used for synthesis and processing in overseas lab.

During this research trip I have worked on PbS and CZTS quantum dot for solar cell application. PbS and Quantum dot were prepared by Sol Gel dip coating and spin coating method. UV analysis revealed that the prepared quantum dots are good absorption of light in visible region. FTO/ZnO (Nanorods)/CZTSandPbS (QDs)/Electrolyte/Platinum based solar cells were fabricated and the performance of the cell was studied using Keithley 2420 Source meter under illumination with an ORIEL Solar Simulator composed of 1000 W Xenon arc lamp and AM 1.5 G filters. The constructed solar cell exhibited good J-V characteristics.

As a part of my research work I have participated in “research day celebrations “How to solve GLOBAL ENERGY CRISES? at Bergen” on 20th& 21st September, 2019 in this two days programme I explained what is solar cell, how it works and how to make these types of solar cells to Norwegian children and public. I also demonstrated Dye Sensitized solar cell working by run a small motor device. This two days program was telecasted by TV2 channel in Bergen. I got another opportunity to explain the working procedure of solar cell and demonstrated how to prepare the solar cell in a program which was conducted by Western Norway University of Applied Science for 9th grade students on 25th September at the HVL, Kronstad and also I motivated & made the students to prepare solar mobile charger by using solar panel.

It was my fourth visit to the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) (previously known as Bergen University College) lies in the city of “pleasant” and “charming” Bergen, Norway.

The entire trip was an auspicious for me to develop myself in the aspects of both professional (Research) and Personal through experiencing the amazing beauties of Norway, its new culture, its food, friends and colleagues. It was fully memorable covered with lot of happy moments.

In this research trip, as a part of my research aspect, a novel preparation of green synthesized flake like-ZnO nanostructures (GF-ZnO NSs), naturally extracted using the leaf of Albizia Amara - as a reducing and capping agent. Herein, we have introduced the above prepared GF-ZnO NSs n-type material as an efficient bilayered electron transport interfacial layer (bi-ETL) deployed at the ETL/perovskite junction for the fabrication of efficient perovskite solar cells (PSCs) structured - Glass/ITO/bi-ETL (c-TiO2/GF-ZnO NSs)/CH3NH3PbI3-xClx/Spiro-MeOTAD/Au. A comparative study has also been made by deploying electron transport materials such as c-TiO2and GF-ZnO NSs separately. From this, the bi-ETL perovskite solar cell devices achieved a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.83% with open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 0.728 V, short circuit current density (JSC) of 20.46 mA/cm2 and a fill factor (FF) of 52.61%.

Tissue engineering is one of the prominent approach in which natural or synthetic bio materials could interact with the cells to promote the tissue regeneration activities and restoration. Fabrication of polymeric scaffolds plays a major role as a backbone in the field of tissue engineering; which would mimic the function of extracellular matrix due to its various physical, chemical and biological properties. Owing to the responsibilities of clinicians and researchers towards the tissue regenerative research.

I have carried out a short term research on the fabrication and characterization of 3D porous polymeric scaffolds for the bone regenerative applications. Since the synthetic polymer polycaprolactone is approved by US Food & Drug Administration and it has enhanced property for the bone regenerative applications; to fulfill the defects of PCl, gelatin is selected to blend with PCl to form a composite porous scaffold to enrich the tissue regeneration properties. PCl and gelatin was blended and using the 3D bio plotter, the porous 3D scaffolds have been printed at room temperature with different composition of gelatin to PCl. Then the biomaterial was characterized by spectral, contact angle measurements, wettability tests, in vitro degradation, and biocompatibility assessments. Bone marrow stem cells were adopted for the cell attachment studies; proliferation and differentiation performances by in vitro studies were confirmed by SEM and CLSM.

I learnt many things during this internship at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen. This is a great opportunity for me to work in the international standard laboratories with students from various countries. This is a good platform to sharing our knowledge and gives us a good international exposure in academicals as well as to know about the various cultures. In my stay at Bergen, I did a part of my research work on perovskite solar cells and used many characterization instruments to analyze my results. Perovskite is a class of compounds having a unique crystal structure that can be used as the active layer in a solar cell. The liquid state perovskite solar cell has introduced in 2006 and the first solid state cell was introduced in 2012. In the past few years lead based perovskite solar cells has achieved 3.1 - 22.1% efficiency. I have synthesized methyl ammonium lead iodide nanoparticles and analyzed its structural properties by XRD and SEM analysis. Also, Methylammonium lead triiodide perovskite solar cells were fabricated by solution processed method and its I-V characteristics analyzed.

One of the main key in research is the intern experience, which was gained by me during March21st– June16th,2018 at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway through URFORSK project. This was my first time visit to Bergen, Norway. It was a great chance to gain experience both, officially at such a world class laboratory and personally with the people over there. Since Bergen is known for its beauty, I almost visited every part of the city. I had memorable days over there which would come through out my life.

I have carried out a part of my research work at FoU laboratory, HVL, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway on photocathode of DSSC’s and i’m dealing with Transition metal dichalcogenides in order to replace platinum with non-precious metal. Although Pt is one of the most selected superior material for catalyzing I- to I3 –, its weak chemical stability i.e., it decomposes to PtI4 or H2PtI2 in tri-iodide/iodide electrolyte and its high cost restricts the scale up production for DSSCs. Further Red-Ox behaviour of transition metal can be enhanced by adding semi-conductors like Co,Fe. During my intern I have synthesized the material via hydrothermal method and characterization studies were taken at UiB, Bergen, Norway. Apart from that, I have learnt a lot from the challenges faced during the experiments and analysis of results. This certainly made my confidence go a few notches up.

This is my first research visit to University of Bergen, Norway. This overseas trip was exciting and I was able to gain a lot of knowledge in the field of bio materials processing and I came across many advanced tools used in the health application research sector. I did my work at the Department of Dentistry, Faculty of Medicine, and University of Bergen, Norway through this student mobility program.

I carried out my research work on nano carbon incorporated cotton fabrics processed through Plasma immersion technique. This cotton fabrics are well known for its textile usages. In addition to this, its role in medical applications such as surgical, wound dressing and sport wearables are also inevitable. In this favor, our research focuses on the incorporation of nano carbon-based materials over cotton fabrics found to be a promising technology for the medical applications. Further, we have extended our plasma implanted nano carbons to make it anti-microbial by incorporation of silver nanoparticle (Ag-NPs) on the plasma treated cotton fabrics. The processed cotton fabric samples were analyzed by using various studies and its bio compatibility were analyzed.