Palani Balaya

Just after graduating from Hyderabad University, India (1993) in the area of Solid State Ionics, Dr. Palani Balaya joined IISc, Bangalore as a Research Associate (1994-1996) and worked on insulating materials. He later joined the Inter University Consortium Mumbai, as a Scientist (1996-2001) before moving to Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart as a Guest Scientist (2001-2006) to work in the area of Nano-ionics. Dr. Palani Balaya joined the Faculty of Engineering, NUS as an Assistant Professor in January 2007. Since July 2014, he works as an Associate Professor at NUS. His research areas include energy conversion and storage. Specifically he works on fast chargeable lithium-ion battery for EV applications, sodium-ion battery for micro-grid and solar housing applications. He is one of the founding members of Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore in NUS. He serves as a Topical (Battery, Fuel Cell, Capacitor) Editor for the Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry (Jan. 2013-Decem. 2018). He has been elected as Fellow of American Ceramic Society (ACerS) in March 2019. He was also recognized by the Society as an ACerS Global Ambassador (2016), recipient of Global Star Award (2015) from ACerS, Late Shri Har Mahandar Singh Chhatwal Memorial Award (2015) from Indian Ceramic Society, Shell Ideas360 Passionate Mentor (2015) from the Shell Companies in Singapore, the Max Planck Fellowship, etc. He has served in Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a Co-ordinating Lead Author for the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation, in 2011. He serves in international advisory boards for several conferences on Energy Storage, also successfully organized several conferences/symposia on Batteries and Energy Storage in Singapore, USA, Canada, Mexico etc., Up to date, he has published 100 articles, filed 25 patents and delivered more than 75 Invited/Keynote/Plenary talks.

Modules Taught

• ME5516 Emerging Energy Conversion and Storage Technologies
• ME5207 Solar Energy Systems
• ESP3401 Photovolatic Devices and Systems

Research Interests

• Energy storage, Lithium-ion batteries and Sodium-ion battery
• Electrical conduction in nanostructured materials
• Thermodynamic stability of nanomaterials

Education

• M.Phil., Ph.D., University of Hyderabad (Central University) (1985 — 1993)
• M.Sc. Annamalai University (1983 — 1985)
• B.Sc., Madras University (1980 — 1983)

Selected Publications

ON ENERGY STORAGE:

1) “Monoclinic Sodium Iron Hexacyanoferrate Cathode and Non-flammable Glyme-based Electrolyte for Inexpensive Sodium-ion Batteries”, A. Rudola, K. Du and P. Balaya, Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2017, 164, A 1098. 2) “Introducing a 0.2 V Sodium-ion Battery Anode: The Na2Ti3O7 to Na3-xTi3O7 Pathway”, A. Rudola, N. Sharma and P. Balaya, Electrochemistry Communications, 2015, 61, p.10. 3) “A new phenomenon in sodium batteries – voltage step due to solvent interaction”, A. Rudola, D. Aurbach and P. Balaya, Electrochemistry Communications, 2014, 46, p.56. 4) “Na2Ti6O13: A Potential Anode for Grid-Storage Sodium-ion Batteries”, A. Rudola, K. Saravanan, S. Devaraj, Hao Gong and P. Balaya, Chemical Communications, 2013, 49, p7451. 5) “α-MoO3: A novel high performance anode material for sodium-ion batteries”, S. Hariharan, K. Saravanan and P. Balaya, Electrochemistry Communications, 2013, 31, p5 6) “The first report on excellent cycling stability and superior rate capability of Na3V2(PO4)3 for Sodium-ion batteries”, K. Saravanan, C. W. Mason, A. Rudola, K. H. Wong, P. Balaya, Advanced Energy Materials, 2013, 3, 4, p444. 7) “Heat loss distribution: Impedance and thermal loss analyses in LiFePO4/graphite 18650 electrochemical cell”, B. Manikandan, V. Ramar, C. Yap, L. Lu, A.A.O. Tay and P.Balaya, Journal of Power Sources 2016, 328, p.413 8) “The Effect of Polymorphism on the Lithium Storage Performance of Li2MnSiO4”, V. Ramar and P. Balaya, Journal of Power Sources, 2015, 306, p.552 9) “Mesoporous TiO2 with High Packing Density for Superior Lithium Storage”, K. Saravanan, K. Ananthanarayanan, and P. Balaya, Energy Environ. Sci., 2010, 3, p939 (Cover Article) 10) “Size Effects and Nanomaterials for Energy Applications”, P. Balaya, Energy and Environ. Sci., 2008, 1, p645 (Perspective Review).