Dr. Rishi Ranjan Kumar

Dr. Rishi Ranjan Kumar currently serves as an Assistant Professor in Physics Department at School of Basic and Applied Science. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in July 2022 from Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. He is a highly motivated and progress focused researcher in the field of materials synthesis, characterization, and analysis. His research activities during Ph.D. focussed on developing highly sensitive, economical, defect-rich, ultrasensitive, and light-activated nanomaterials/composites for the detection of toxic gases such as NO2, NO, NH3 and O3.

He was awarded the prestigious postdoctoral fellowship by the National Science and Technology, Taiwan, and subsequently joined National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, where he dedicated 10 months (November 2022 – September 2023) to his research endeavors. During this tenure, his focus centered on the development of advanced multilayered polymer devices designed for ammonia sensing applications.

He did his masters from Jamia Millia Islamia and University of Delhi, India where he gained experience in the thin film deposition processes using physical vapor deposition techniques which includes thermal evaporation, sputtering, e-gun evaporation, atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) and some chemical routes techniques such as hydrothermal and seed-assisted growth.

• Ph.D. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan (September 2018 – July 2022) [QS World Ranking (2023) = 177] Thesis title: Highly Sensitive NO2 Gas Sensors Based on MoS2-loaded ZnO Heterojunction Nanocomposites
• M. Tech in Nanotechnology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. (July 2016 – June 2018)
• Master’s degree in physics, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India. (August 2012 – December 2014)
• Bachelor’s degree in physics, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India. (July 2009 – July 2012)

• Post Doctoral Research Fellow (November 2022 – September 2023), Institute of Physics, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan [QS World Ranking (2023) = 202]
• Teaching assistant for Principles of Electrical Engineering at Department of Materials Science and Technology, National Tsing Hua University from Sept 2020 – January 2021.

• Fabrication of highly sensitive, economical, defect-rich, ultrasensitive, and light-activated nanomaterials/composites for the detection of toxic gases.
• Design a prototype for in-situ monitoring of toxic gases.
• Developing a low-cost gas sensing network for air quality monitoring in urban areas.

• Completed 8-month internship under Dr. Govind (Principal Scientist) from CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, India on “Growth of III-Nitride Semiconductor by Plasma Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy and Liquid Exfoliation Assisted Growth of MoS2 Nano-Sheets for Sensing Applications” (January – August 2018)
• Internship under Dr. Renu Tyagi (Scientist ‘G’) from Solid State Physics Laboratory (SSPL), DRDO, New Delhi, India on “Photo Electrochemical Wet Etching of GaN and its Hall Measurement” (May – July 2013).
• Reviewed articles from Chemical Engineering Journal, ACS Sensors and IOP Semiconductor Science and Technology.
• Outstanding Poster Award for the year 2020 from Office of Research & Development, NTHU, Taiwan
• NTHU International Ph.D. Scholarship (Sept 2018 – August 2022)
• Excellent Oral Presenter Award at MRST 2020 – November 2020 held at MCUT, Taiwan
• Best Poster Presenter at 2020 ICSS, 25th SACST & 23rd NMC – October 2020 held at NSYSU, Taiwan
• Best Poster Presenter (1st Prize) at COE Research Competition – May 2020 held at NTHU, Taiwan
• Best Poster Presenter (1st Prize) at MSE Research Competition – April 2020 held at NTHU, Taiwan
• Best Poster Presenter (3rd Prize) at EITC – October 2019 held at NCTU, Taiwan
• GATE (Physics) 2017, All India Rank-1715
• CSIR-UGC Net (Physical Science), June 2016, All India Rank-36 (Lectureship)

•  Nano Road Show-February 2020, Miranda House, University of Delhi, India
• MRST 2020 – November 2020, Ming Chi University of Technology, Taiwan
• College Of Engineering Research Competition – May 2020, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
• 2020 ICSS, 25th SACST & 23rd NMC – October 2020, National Sun Yet Sun University, Taiwan
• EITC – October 2019, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
• International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICNN) – September 2017, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, India

• Kuang, Y. P., Dubey, A., Ranjan, R., Tsai, H. Y., Yadav, S. N. S., Chen, C. Y., Gwo, S., Lin, H. N. and Yen, T. J., Multifunctional Plasmonic Sensor for Excellent UV Photodetection and NO2 Gas Sensing by an Array of Al Nanocaps on GaN Truncated Nanocones. Advanced Optical Materials, 2023, p.2300252. [I.F. 9.0] https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.202300252
• Kumar, R. R., Yu, W. C., Murugesan, T., Chen, P. C., Ranjan, A., Lu, M. Y. and Lin, H. N. Formation of large-scale MoS2/Cu2O/ZnO heterostructure arrays by in situ photodeposition and application for ppb-level NO2 gas sensing. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2023, 952, p.169984. [I.F. 6.2] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2023.169984
• Kokulnathan, T., Wang, T. J., Murugesan, T., Anthuvan, A. J., Kumar, R. R., Ahmed, F., Arshi, N. Structural Growth of Zinc Oxide Nanograins on Carbon Cloth as Flexible Electrochemical Platform for Hydroxychloroquine Detection. Chemosphere. 2023, 312, 137186. [I.F. 8.8] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.137186
• Khan, A., Cong, J., Kumar, R. R., Ahmed, S., Yang, D., Yu, X., Chemical Vapor Deposition of Graphene on Self-Limited SiC Interfacial Layers Formed on Silicon Substrates for Heterojunction Devices. ACS Applied Nano Materials, 2022, 5(12), 17544-17555. [I.F. 5.9] https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.2c03006
• kumar Anbalagan, A., Gupta, S., Kumar, R. R., Tripathy, A. R., Chaudhary, M., Haw, S.C., Murugesan, T., Lin, H.N., Chueh, Y.L., Tai, N.H. and Lee, C.H. Gamma-ray Engineered Surface Defects on Zinc Oxide Nanorods Towards Enhanced NO2 Gas Sensing Performance at Room Temperature. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2022, 369, 132255. [I.F. 8.4] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2022.132255
• Ahmed, S., Khatun, S., Sallam, S., Ansari, A., Ansari, Z. A., Kumar, R. R., Hakami, J. and Khan, A. Photoresponse of porous silicon for potential optical sensing. Europhysics Letters, 2022, 139(3), p.36001. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1209/0295-5075/ac7d08/meta
• Murugesan, T., Kumar, R. R., kumar Anbalagan, A., Lee, C. H., and Lin, H. N. Interlinked Polyaniline/ZnO Nanorod Composite for Selective NO2 Gas Sensing at Room Temperature. ACS Applied Nano Materials. 2022, 5(4), 4921-4930. [I.F. 5.9] https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.1c04519
• Khan, A., Kumar, R. R., Cong, J., Imran, M., Yang, D., Yu, X. CVD Graphene on Textured Silicon: An Emerging Technologically Versatile Heterostructure for Energy and Detection Applications, Advanced Material Interfaces. 2021, 9(1), 2100977. [I.F. 5.4] https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202100977
• Kumar, R. R.*, Habib, M. R., Khan, A., Chen, P. C., Murugesan, T., Gupta, S., … & Lin, H. N. Sulfur Monovacancies in Liquid-Exfoliated MoS2 Nanosheets for NO2 Gas Sensing. ACS Applied Nano Materials. 2021, 4 (9), 9459-9470. [I.F. 5.9] https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.1c01929
•  kumar Anbalagan, A., Gupta, S., Chaudhary, M., Kumar, R. R., Chueh, Y.L., Tai, N.H. and Lee, C.H., 2021. Consequences of gamma-ray irradiation on structural and electronic properties of PEDOT: PSS polymer in air and vacuum environments. RSC Advances, 2021, 11(34), 20752-20759. [I.F.=3.9] https://doi.org/10.1039/D1RA03463D
•  Kumar, R. R., Murugesan, T., Chang, T.W. and Lin, H.N. Defect controlled adsorption/desorption kinetics of ZnO nanorods for UV-activated NO2 gas sensing at room temperature. Materials Letters, 2021, 287, 129257. [I.F.=3.0] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2020.129257
•  Kumar, R. R., Murugesan, T., Dash, A., Hsu, C. H., Gupta, S., Manikandan, A., … & Lin, H. N. Ultrasensitive and light-activated NO2 gas sensor based on networked MoS2/ZnO nanohybrid with adsorption/desorption kinetics study. Applied Surface Science, 2021, 536, 147933. [I.F.=6.7] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2020.147933
•  Jain, S. K., Kumar, R. R., Aggarwal, N., Vashishtha, P., Goswami, L., Kuriakose, S., Pandey, A., Bhaskaran, M., Walia, S., and Gupta, G. Current Transport and Band Alignment Study of MoS2/GaN and MoS2/AlGaN Heterointerfaces for Broadband Photodetection Application. ACS Applied Electronic Materials, 2020, 2(3), 710-718. [I.F.=4.7] https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaelm.9b00793
•  Khan, A., Islam, Sk M., Ahmed, S., Kumar, R. R., Habib, M. R., Huang, K., Hu, M., Yu, X., and Yang, D. Direct CVD Growth of Graphene on Technologically Important Dielectric and Semiconducting Substrates. Advanced Science, 5(11), 2018, 1800050. [I.F.=15.1] https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201800050

  Khan, A., Habib, M. R., Kumar, R. R., Islam, Sk M., Arivazhagan, V., Salman, M., Yang, D., and Yu, X. Wetting behaviors and applications of metal-catalyzed CVD grown graphene. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2018, 6(45), 22437-22464. [I.F.=11.9] https://doi.org/10.1039/C8TA08325H

  List of Book Chapters 

  • One-Dimensional Silicon Carbide (SiC) Nanostructures and Their Sensor Applications, Afzal Khan, Rishi Ranjan Kumar, Shahzad Ahmed, S. M. Islam, Xuegong Yu, Ahmad Umar, and Yao Wang. American Scientific Publishers, Nanomaterials based Flexible and Multifunctional Sensors. Chapter-10, July 2018, ISBN: 1-58883-257-0
  • Gallium Nitride (GaN) Nanostructure-Based Sensors, S. M. Islam, Vijay Chatterjee, Suchandan Pal, Afzal Khan, Rishi Ranjan Kumar, Shahzad Ahmed, and Ahmad Umar. American Scientific Publishers, Nanomaterials based Flexible and Multifunctional Sensors. Chapter-11, July 2018, ISBN: 1-58883-257-0.