Praveen Meduri
2204 James Pirtle Court, Apt #1, Phone: (330) 212-0045
Louisville, KY-40217. Email:
Research Interests Chemical Vapor Deposition, Large scale nanowire synthesis and characterization, Nanowire applications in electrochemical energy conversion devices.
Education Doctor of philosophy, Chemical Engineering, January 06 - Present
The University of Louisville, Louisville, KY (GPA – 3.95/4.00)
Master of Science, Chemical Engineering, August 03 – December 05
The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio. (GPA – 3.57/4.00)
Bachelor of Engineering (Hons.) Chemical, August 99 - July 03
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India (GPA – 3.75/4.00)
Experience Graduate Research August 03 - Present
· Large scale synthesis of Carbon microtubes, Silicon and Germanium alloy as well as pure phase nanowires, metal oxide nanowires in the Microwave plasma reactor.
· Raman spectroscopy analysis of the synthesized nanowires to understand laser heating effects as well as phonon confinement effects.
· Electrochemical measurements to understand the performance of the nanowire based lithium ion batteries.
· Synthesis of polymeric nanofibers by the method of electrospinning. Polymeric Nanofibers electro spun include Nylon-6, Nomex and Polystyrene and Polyaniline.
· Thin film deposition of these nanofibers with materials like Aluminum Nitride (AlN), Boron nitride (BN) and Zirconium Nitride (ZrN) (semi conducting materials) in the PVD Equipment.
· Characterizing these nanofibers for their surface energies using a novel technique based on the wetting measurements. Experience in using the PVD/PECVD equipment to coat substrates with metals like aluminum, Zirconium, gold and silicon for use as semi conducting as well as photovoltaic materials.
Teaching Assistant, August 03 – December 05
The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio.
· Tutored for Chemical Reaction Engineering and Tools for Chemical Engineering classes.
· Setting up the Distillation column and a Glass Reactor for the Undergraduate student lab.
· Guided the undergraduate students in determining the diffusivities of metals evaporated in the Physical Vapor Deposition System.
Engineering Internship Programs,
· Vasant Chemicals and Organics Ltd., Hyderabad, India working on project “Pilot plant for improvement of yield of Dinitro stilbene disulfonic acid (DNSDA) from Para nitro toluene orthosulfonic acid (PNTSA)” in
the R & D Division. This project involved design and set up of the pilot plant for the manufacture of DNSDA. Various critical factors involved were met by proper theoretical design principles. The outcome was that the yield improvement by 6% and 8 hour reduction in the time cycle. January 03 – July 03
· Madras Cements Limited, Jaggayyapet, India working on the project “Blending Control System”. Project involved a thorough understanding of the cement manufacture process, an analysis of the composition of raw materials coming out of the silos (big storage bins) to check for the homogeneity of the material. This analysis was followed by suitable recommendations to increase the efficiency of the silos. May 01- July 01
Undergraduate Research
· Design Project.
“A dynamic study on simultaneous production of Ethyl and Methyl Acetate using Reactive Distillation”. This project involves design and set up of the reactive distillation column involving appropriate feed ratio, height of reactive and distillation column which were critical for the design. The design was optimized at the end.
· Modeling Projects.
Ø Calculation of the parameters of a typical multicomponent Distillation, Extraction and Absorption column.
Ø Calculation of various Thermodynamic Properties Using Cubic Equations of State.
Papers Meduri P., Sumanasekera G. U., Chen Z. and Sunkara M. K. “Composition controlled synthesis and Raman analysis of Ge-rich SixGe1-x nanowires” in Jour. Of Nanoscience and Nanotech. (submitted).
Presentations 1. Oral presentation on “Synthesis of Silicon-Germanium alloy nanowires using vapor-liquid-solid method” at Annual AICHE meeting 2006.
2. Oral presentation on” Electrospun Polyaniline/Nylon-6 and Polyaniline/Poly (vinylidene fluoride) nanowires” at Annual AICHE meeting 2005.
3. Poster presentation on “Surface energy characterization of nanofibers” at the Coalescence filtration nanomaterials consortium, September 2005.
4. “Reactive Distillation for simultaneous production of Ethyl and Methyl Acetate”, A Professional Oriented Gathering of Educational Experience (APOGEE), BITS, Pilani, India, March 2002.
Computer Experience
Programming Languages : C, C++.
Environment : MSDOS, Windows 95/98, Windows NT, SCO UNIX, LINUX.
Internet related : HTML, Front Page, Adobe Acrobat Reader and MS Office.
Research software : CHEMCAD, Minitab, MATLAB, POLYMATH, FLUENT, HYSIS Software.
Equipments Physical Vapor Deposition Reactor – for generating plasmas
Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Reactor – for deposition purposes.
Raman Spectroscopy – for material phase identification.
Scanning Electron Microscope – for observing the surface features and dimensions of nanofibers.
Transmission Electron Microscope – for observing the surface features.
Atomic Force Microscope – for obtaining the surface topographies.
Contact Angle Goniometer – for making surface energy measurements.
High Profile Liquid Chromatography, Gas Chromatography – for determining the liquid compositions.
Honors
Ø Among the top 3 students in Chemical Engineering, BITS, Pilani, India for the year 2002, 2003.
Ø Head of the Sponsorship department of BITS, Pilani for the academic year 2001-2002. Played a prominent role in securing sponsorship for conducting a national level educational programme, APOGEE for a week.
Ø Best exhibit award in APOGEE, BITS, Pilani, India, March 2002.
Ø Secured a best presentation award for a talk on “Mathematical fallacies and their Analysis” at ALL INDIA MATHEMATICS TEACHERS ASSOCIATION conference held at Chennai, 1998.
Ø Rank 23rd (of over 1, 20,000 students) in the senior secondary examinations conducted by APBIE.
Ø Rank 1481 (of over 1, 50,000 students) in the Engineering Agriculture Medicine Common Entrance Test (EAMCET) 1999.