Aanchal Alagh
PhD Programme: Technologies for Nanosystems, Bioengineering and Energy
Research group: MinoS – Microsystems and Nanotechnologies for Chemical Analysis
Supervisor: Eduard Llobet Valero
Bio
Aanchal Alagh joined the Amity Institute of Nanotechnology (India) in 2011 as a dual Bachelor's and Master's student in Nanotechnology. The five-year course gave her insight into the fascinating applications and remarkable scope of nanomaterials. In 2016, she got an opportunity to work at the Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona, UAB, for her master’s thesis on "Growing a homogeneous layer of ferromagnetic core-shell nanocubes for arsenic removal from water". This experience aided her in gaining practical knowledge in the field of nanoparticle synthesis through PVD method and exploring it for water purification application. Also, she presented her work through Poster presentation in Nanoselect NOE-Annual meeting in Girona, Spain. Later, in 2017 she joined the Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science of the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay. She worked on Development of icephobic coatings for aerospace applications (project funded by BOEING). She was awarded with first prize for her poster on "A New Generation Self-Cleaning Coatings for Universal Applications" in the 13th International Symposium on Surface Engineering and Paint Coatings & EXPO 2017 held in Pune, India. She also got an opportunity to work as an exchange student in chair of Inorganic Chemistry at University of Cologne in Germany through DAAD scholarship. Here she worked on synthesis of spinel nanoparticles and incorporated them in the developed hydrophobic coating for enhanced results and properties. Also depositing thin layers of hydrophobic cotings using PECVD.
Project: Synthesis and gas sensing properties of transition metal dichalcogenides materials
In the industrial monitoring process, car emission control, indoor and outdoor air quality safety, and environmental protection, continuous and reliable detection of various gases is critical. Semiconducting metal oxides, the most extensively used materials in gas sensing applications, have substantial limitations such as high power consumption, poor long-term stability, limited selectivity, and, most notably, high humidity cross-sensitivity. Novel materials that allow for low-temperature operation might solve power-related issues, resulting in better and more reliable sensor networks. As a result, 2D materials like transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have emerged as viable options for gas sensing. These next-generation materials have the potential to improve gas-sensitive materials' sensing properties such as sensitivity, selectivity, stability, and speed (response-recovery time).This is owing to their inherent unique properties, which include nanoscale thickness, large specific surface area, abundant active edge sites, and high sensitivity to gas molecules at lower temperatures and even at room temperature. The current thesis attempts to scale up the fabrication of these next-generation 2D layered materials and utilise them for gas sensing applications in this field of study. Furthermore, the gas sensing materials investigated in this thesis have the potential to address the aforementioned either in their pristine form or after some functionalization. In this regard, this thesis proposes chemoresistive gas sensors based on several TMDs materials.
Open Access publications
- González, Ernesto, Juan Casanova-Chafer, Aanchal Alagh, Alfonso Romero, Xavier Vilanova, Selene Acosta, Damien Cossement, Carla Bittencourt, and Eduard Llobet. 2021. "On the Use of Pulsed UV or Visible Light Activated Gas Sensing of Reducing and Oxidising Species with WO3 and WS2 Nanomaterials". Sensors 21, no. 11: 3736. View full-text
- Aanchal Alagh, Fatima Ezahra Annanouch, Khaled Al Youssef, Carla Bittencourt, Frank Güell, Paulina R. Martínez-Alanis, Marc Reguant, Eduard Llobet, PdO and PtO loaded WS2 boosts NO2 gas sensing characteristics at room temperature, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, Volume 364, 2022, 131905. View full-text
- Fatima Ezahra Annanouch, Aanchal Alagh, Polona Umek, Juan Casanova-Chafer, Carla Bittencourt, Eduard Llobet, Controlled growth of 3D assemblies of edge enriched multilayer MoS2 nanosheets for dually selective NH3 and NO2 gas sensors, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022,10, 11027-11039. View full-text
- PHD THESIS: Synthesis and gas sensing properties of transition metal dichalcogenides materials
Outreach activities
- European Researchers' Night 2019: “Ciència amb nom de dona”.
- European Researchers' Night 2020: “The paths of water”.
International secondment
- University of California, USA. 3 months (2021).
