Dr Aruna Ivaturi

Senior Lecturer

Pure and Applied Chemistry

Personal statement

I am EPSRC Fellow, Chancellor’s Fellow and Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) leading the Smart Materials Research and Device Technology (SMaRDT) Group at Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Strathclyde. I am Strathclyde's Energy Sub-Theme (Photovoltaics) coordinator. I am one of the founding PI of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Sustainable Practices of Research in Energy (C-INSPRE) , a new and innovative interdisciplinary Strathclyde Centre for Doctoral Training (SCDT) that links all four faculties of the University of Strathclyde. C-INSPRE is Strathclyde's first 'Energy CDT'.

I have made important scientific and technological contributions – for example, switchable coatings for energy saving windows, materials and devices for sensing technologies, solar energy conversion, solar photocatalyst and dye-sensitised electrochromic devices. Over the last years my main research focus has been in the development of novel materials and devices for solar energy conversion especially the emerging new PV technologies (Spectral conversion, Dye sensitised and Perovskite solar cells). I was awarded the EPSRC Fellowship (funding of ~ £1.1 Million) to develop the challenging field of Elastic Perovskite PV research in the UK.

The principal research interests of my (SMaRDT) group lie in development of sustainable (nano)materials and devices to address global challenges in energy, environment and healthcare sectors. In the energy sector, the focus is on development of ultra-light weight mechanically resilient solar cells for harvesting indoor light and upcycling waste (biomass and plastic) for printable flexible and stretchable supercapacitors towards Net Zero future. In the environment sector the focus is on developing electrochemical sensors for heavy metal detection and visible light active photocatalysts for water remediation. In the health care sector the focus has been on developing electrochemical glucose sensors and biodegradable piezoelectric sensors.

If you are an outstanding and enthusiastic individual interested in PhD/Post-doc or in short term (e.g ERASMUS, Commonwealth etc) projects in the SMaRDT group to contribute to the challenging sectors mentioned under the Research Areas (or any other related areas) then please send in your CV.

Expertise

Back to staff profile

Prize And Awards

Guest Editor RSC Energy Advances: Recipient; 2024
'Sustainable Impact by Design' Team, Strathclyde Medal: Recipient; 2023
LEAF Sustainable Lab Award: Recipient; 2023
Guest Editor Frontiers in Carbon: Recipient; 2023
WiLN 'Sustainability Award' Nominee 2023: Recipient; 2023
European Crucibilist 2022: Recipient; 2022

More prizes and awards

Publications

Back to staff profile

Publications

Corn husk derived activated carbon/siloxene composite electrodes based symmetric supercapacitor with high Energy density and wide temperature tolerance: Reddygunta Kiran Kumar Reddy, Šiller Lidija, Ivaturi Aruna; ChemElectroChem Vol 11 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1002/celc.202400230
Indoor light harvesting perovskite solar cells on conducting oxide-free ultrathin deformable substrates: Valluvar Oli Arivazhagan, Ivaturi Aruna; ACS Applied Energy Materials Vol 7, pp. 6096-6104 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.3c02581
Unravelling the chloride dopant induced film improvement in all-inorganic perovskite absorbers: Nicholson Stefan, Bruckbauer Jochen, Edwards Paul, Trager-Cowan Carol, Martin Robert, Ivaturi Aruna; Journal of Materials Chemistry. A Vol 12, pp. 25131-25139 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA01259C
Sheet-like ZnCo2O4 microspheres and pomelo peel waste-derived activated carbon for high performance solid state asymmetric supercapacitors: Reddygunta Kiran Kumar Reddy, Šiller Lidija, Ivaturi Aruna; Sustainable Energy and Fuels Vol 8, pp. 2751-2761 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SE00182F
Ultra-broadband near-infrared upconversion for solar energy harvesting: Arnaoutakis Georgios E, Busko Dmitry, Richards Bryce S, Ivaturi Aruna, Gordon Jeffrey M, Katz Eugene A; Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells Vol 269 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2024.112783
Screen-printed stretchable supercapacitors based on tin sulfide-decorated face-mask-derived activated carbon electrodes with high areal energy density: Reddygunta Kiran Kumar Reddy, Šiller Lidija, Ivaturi Aruna; ACS Applied Energy Materials Vol 7, pp. 3558-3576 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.3c02902

More publications

Research

Back to staff profile

Research Interests

Smart Materials Research and Device Technology (SMaRDT) Group is presently working on multidisciplinary projects in the following sectors:

a) Energy (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, EPSRC funded project): Elastic Perovskite Solar Cells, in collaborations with industry (Shadow Robots, G24 Power, NSG Pilkington and Dupont Teijin Films) and academia [University of Edinburgh, Oxford University and Johannes Kepler University]

b) Environment (UK-India Education and Research Initiative, UKIERI funded project): Biosorbants and Photocatalysts for Waste Water Remediation in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, India and Waste Water Treatment Plant IIT Guwahati.

c) Healthcare (Royal Academy of Engineering, RAE funded project): Wearable Glucose Sensors in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Science Malaysia and University of Namibia and University Hospital at University of Sciences Malaysia.

If you are an outstanding and enthusiastic individual interested in PhD/Post-doc in the SMaRDT group to contribute to these challenging sectors (and Research Areas mentioned) then please send in your CV and publications.

Dr. Aruna Ivaturi has strong track record of getting funding via fellowships. If you are interested in applying for a fellowship (doctoral/postdoctoral) to work in SMaRDT group, then please drop an email. Information about the various postdoc fellowship opportunities can be found via following links: