Amuthan Dekshinamoorthy, amuthan.dekshinamoorthy@temple.edu
Amuthan completed his Bachelor of Engineering degree (B.E.) in Biotechnology from the University of Mumbai. Being intrigued by advances in the merging field of “Nanoscience”, he went on to do a Master of Technology degree (M.Tech) in Nanoscience and Technology from Anna University, Chennai, where he worked on piezoelectric properties of Nano-cellulose. For his master’s project work, he worked at ICAR- Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology (CIRCOT), Mumbai as a student trainee. With the experience of working with an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) during his master’s work, he joined as a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) in a DST-Science Engineering and Research Board (SERB) sponsored project, “Scanning Tunnelling Microscopic studies on porphyrins and phthalocyanines coated on 2D platforms” with Dr. Saranyan Vijayaraghavan at CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi.
Amuthan was involved with the installation and optimization of India’s 1st closed cycle ultra-high vacuum low-temperature scanning probe microscope (UHV-LT-SPM). Subsequently, Amuthan registered for the Ph.D. Program in Engineering Sciences under the Academy for Scientific and Industrial Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad. He availed the prestigious CSIR-Senior research fellowship (SRF) to continue his research work. He uses scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), spectroscopy (STS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and other analytical techniques like Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to examine single organic molecules and 2D ultra-thin materials in order to better understand their fundamental properties and how they can be used in electrocatalysis. This has also led to further investigations with fundamental electrochemistry using voltammetry (CV, LSV) and Impedance spectroscopy (EIS, Tafel). He plans to combine and utilize his interest in electrochemistry and scanning probe microscopy in order to understand the interfacial phenomena of single molecules and self-assembled layers. He has also been working on industrially relevant projects like corrosion and electrodics in order to check the applications of 2D materials in electrochemistry.
Amuthan Joined Temple University as a Research intern for a period of 9 months starting January 2023 with Dr. Eric Borguet. He will be working on scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy on 2D materials under ambient and liquid environments.