Publications by Kumar Varoon Agrawal

Related publications (71)

A molecularly engineered large-area nanoporous atomically thin graphene membrane for ion separation

Atomically thin graphene membranes with sub-1-nm pores show promise for ion/molecular separation, osmotic energy generation, and energy storage. Narrowing the pore size distribution and controlling the surface charge are essential to achieve these applicat ...

Springer Science and Business Media LLC2025

MPD and TMC supply as parameters to describe synthesis-morphology-performance relationships of polyamide thin film composite membranes

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Cédric Karel J Van Goethem

This study assesses the influence during interfacial polymerization on polyamide thin film composite (TFC) morphology and performance of varying monomer concentrations and organic phases with widely varying physico-chemical characteristics (interfacial ten ...

ELSEVIER2023

Gas Separation Membranes with Atom-Thick Nanopores: The Potential of Nanoporous Single-Layer Graphene

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Luis Francisco Villalobos Vazquez de la Parra, Kuang-Jung Hsu, Deepu Joseph Babu, Cédric Karel J Van Goethem

Gas separation is one of the most important industrial processes and is poised to take a larger role in the transition to renewable energy, e.g., carbon capture and hydrogen purification. Conventional gas separation processes involving cryogenic distillati ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2022

Gas Transport across Carbon Nitride Nanopores: A Comparison of van der Waals Functionals against the Random-Phase Approximation

Nicola Marzari, Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Davide Campi, Nicola Colonna

C2N is an ordered two-dimensional carbon nitride with a high density (1.7 x 10 14 cm(-2)) of 3.1 angstrom-sized nanopores, making it promising for highflux gas sieving for energy-efficient He and H-2 purification. Herein, we discuss the accurate calculatio ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2021

Machine-learning accelerated identification of exfoliable two-dimensional materials

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Giovanni Pizzi, Mohammad Tohidivahdat

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have been a central focus of recent research because they host a variety of properties, making them attractive both for fundamental science and for applications. It is thus crucial to be able to identify accurately and effici ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2022

Atmospheric water harvesting in semi-arid regions by membranes: A techno-economic assessment

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Marina Micari, Xuekui Duan

The availability of a reliable and sufficient amount of water constitutes one of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. The provision of water is still challenging in many regions of the world, especially in arid and semi-arid regions ...

ELSEVIER2023

Electrochemical-repaired porous graphene membranes for precise ion-ion separation

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Kangning Zhao, Heng-Yu Chi, Kuang-Jung Hsu, Mojtaba Chevalier, Yueqing Shen, Shuqing Song, Zongyao Zhou

The preparation of atom-thick porous lattice hosting & Aring;-scale pores is attractive to achieve a large ion-ion selectivity in combination with a large ion flux. Graphene film is an ideal selective layer for this if high-precision pores can be incorpora ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Millisecond lattice gasification for high-density CO2- and O2-sieving nanopores in single-layer graphene

Emad Oveisi, Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Mounir Driss Mensi, Luis Francisco Villalobos Vazquez de la Parra, Shiqi Huang, Mostapha Dakhchoune, Shaoxian Li, Deepu Joseph Babu, Marina Micari

Etching single-layer graphene to incorporate a high pore density with sub-angstrom precision in molecular differentiation is critical to realize the promising high-flux separation of similar-sized gas molecules, e.g., CO2 from N2. However, rapid etching ki ...

2021

Metal Soap Membranes for Gas Separation

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Davide Campi, Qi Liu, Deepu Joseph Babu, Jian Hao

Metal soaps or metal alkanoates are metal-organic complexes held together with metal cations and the functional groups of hydrocarbon chains. They can be synthesized at a high yield by simply mixing the metal and organic sources, forming crystalline framew ...

2020

Large-scale synthesis of crystalline g-C3N4 nanosheets and high-temperature H-2 sieving from assembled films

Nicola Marzari, Emad Oveisi, Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Mounir Driss Mensi, Davide Campi, Luis Francisco Villalobos Vazquez de la Parra

Poly(triazine imide) (PTI), a crystalline g-C3N4, hosting two-dimensional nanoporous structure with an electron density gap of 0.34 nm, is highly promising for high-temperature hydrogen sieving because of its high chemical and thermal robustness. Currently ...

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE2020

Stereochemical tuning, post-synthesis crosslinking and quaternizing to tune the membrane performance of ultra-stable polyamine nanofiltration membranes

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Cédric Karel J Van Goethem

Solvent resistant and pH-stable nanofiltration membranes play a crucial role in solvent or water reuse across various industries, including pharma, chemical, dairy and mining, where stringent pH conditions and chemical stability are imperative. Previous re ...

2025

Demonstrating and Unraveling a Controlled Nanometer-Scale Expansion of the Vacancy Defects in Graphene by CO2

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Luis Francisco Villalobos Vazquez de la Parra, Kuang-Jung Hsu, Mojtaba Chevalier

A controlled manipulation of graphene edges and vacancies is desired for molecular separation, sensing and electronics applications. Unfortunately, available etching methods always lead to vacancy nucleation making it challenging to control etching. Herein ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2022

Anisotropic node distortions in amorphous MOFs: Low-valent Zr sites as catalytic hotspots

Berend Smit, Emad Oveisi, Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Wendy Lee Queen, Andres Adolfo Ortega Guerrero, Vikram Vinayak Karve, Till Marian Schertenleib, Jian Hao, Timo Markus Oskar Felder, Beatriz Bueno Mouriño

We introduce a new approach to defect engineering in Zr-based metal-organic frameworks (Zr-MOFs), aiming to reduce Zr site valency while preserving high node connectivity. Using a rapid heat treatment (RHT) in humid air, oxygen vacancies (O-vacancies) were ...

Elsevier BV2025

Crack-Free Monolayer Graphene Interlayer for Improving Perovskite Crystallinity and Energy Level Alignment in Efficient Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells

Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin, Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Hiroyuki Kanda, Shiqi Huang, Yen-Cheng Liu

Inverted planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have intrigued great promise in negative hysteresis, simple fabrication process, and flexible substrate implementation, in which the shared hole transport materiel is NiOx. However, the low-temperature solution ...

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH2022

Unblocking Ion-occluded Pore Channels in Poly(triazine imide) Framework for Proton Conduction

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Pascal Alexander Schouwink, Kangning Zhao, Luis Francisco Villalobos Vazquez de la Parra, Heng-Yu Chi, Laura Piveteau, Qi Liu

Poly(triazine imide) or PTI is an ordered graphitic carbon nitride hosting angstrom-scale pores attractive for selective molecular transport. AA'-stacked PTI layers are synthesized by ionothermal route during which ions occupy the framework and occlude the ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2022

Techno-economic assessment of postcombustion carbon capture using high-performance nanoporous single-layer graphene membranes

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Mostapha Dakhchoune, Marina Micari

High-performance membranes have emerged as an energy-efficient alternative to absorption-based postcombustion carbon capture. So far, the techno-economic analyses have been centered around the polymeric membranes. Recently, nanoporous single-layer graphene ...

2021

Synergistic CO2-Sieving from Polymer with Intrinsic Microporosity Masking Nanoporous Single-Layer Graphene

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Mounir Driss Mensi, Luis Francisco Villalobos Vazquez de la Parra, Shiqi Huang, Guangwei He, Wan-Chi Lee, Jing Zhao

High-flux nanoporous single-layer graphene membranes are highly promising for energy-efficient gas separation. Herein, in the context of carbon capture, a remarkable enhancement in the CO(2)selectivity is demonstrated by uniquely masking nanoporous single- ...

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH2020

Print-light-synthesis of electrocatalytically active gas diffusion electrodes for fuel cell applications

Hubert Girault, Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Luc Sébastien Bondaz

The present work reports a simple approach to manufacture electrocatalytically active gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) in two steps: (i) inkjet printing and (ii) flash light irradiation from a xenon flash lamp, a process called Print-light-synthesis (PLS). ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2025

Towards large-scale application of nanoporous materials in membranes for separation of energy-relevant gas mixtures

Kumar Varoon Agrawal

Membranes containing nanoporous materials (such as zeolites, metal-organic materials and 2D materials such as graphene derivatives) may allow more efficient separation of gas mixtures relevant to emerging energy tech-nologies. For example, such membranes c ...

2022

Mechanistic Study on Thermally Induced Lattice Stiffening of ZIF-8

Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Wendy Lee Queen, Pascal Alexander Schouwink, Mehrdad Asgari, Qi Liu, Deepu Joseph Babu, Jian Hao

The flexibility of the ZIF-8 aperture, which inhibits a molecular cutoff of 3.4 angstrom, can be reduced by rapid heat treatment to obtain CO2-selective membranes. However, the early stages of the structural, morphological, and chemical changes responsible ...

2021