Electrochemical Energy Conversion (IC3020)

Course Contents

Fundamentals of electrochemistry

• Electrochemical cell - redox reaction, origin of electrode potential, Standard Hydrogen Electrode, EMF series, Reference electrodes, Concentration cells, Liquid Junction Potential, Applications of EMF, Conductivity of electrolyte solutions, Activity, Activity coefficient, Debye - Huckel - Onsager Equation,

Electrochemical Kinetics

• Overpotential, Butler Volmer equation, Tafel equation.

Corrosion

• Basics, chemical and electrochemical corrosion, corrosion control

Principles of Operation of Cells and Batteries

• Electrochemical Principles and Reactions; Factors Affecting Battery Performance; Battery Design; Primary cells and Batteries; Fundamentals of Secondary Batteries: Advanced Lead-acid, Ni-based and lithium-ion batteries, next generation batteries, Materials for batteries, Electrode preparation, cell Assembly, electrochemical performance analysis, understanding of degradation mechanism and Safety.

Fuel cells

• Introduction to Fuel Cells: working principle, direct methanol fuel cells, Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells, alkaline fuel cells, phosphoric acid, solid oxide, molten carbonate Fuel cells.

Real life Applications

• Advanced batteries and fuel cells for UPS, Solar, Telecom, Aerospace, Grid and Electric Vehicle applications.

What you'll learn

This course gives an insight to fundamental of electrochemistry; electrochemical kinetics; electrochemical mechanism of corrosion and mitigation strategies. Comprehensive overview on working principles of typical rechargeable batteries and fuel cells and their operation with real life applications will be covered.

• To understand the basics of electrochemistry
• To apply fundamental concepts in developing environmentally friendly energy storage devices
• To motivate students in exploring cutting-edge research based on advanced electrochemistry

About the Instructor

Dr. Narendra Kurra is currently working as an assistant professor at the department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. He did masters from the school of chemistry, University of Hyderabad (2006-08). He was a gold medalist of 2006-08 MSc chemistry batch of University of Hyderabad. He obtained his PhD from JNCASR, Bangalore in 2013. He was a postdoctoral fellow at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and Drexel University, USA prior to becoming a Research Assistant Professor at A. J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, USA. His Research interests include understanding of fundamental aspects of electrode-electrolyte interfaces, nanomaterials for electrochemical energy storage applications including high rate On-chip Energy Storage and hybrid metal-ion capacitors. Dr. Kurra has been recipient of teaching excellence award at IITHyderabad (2024) and IISER-TVM (2021). Dr. Kurra received Research excellence award at IITHyderabad (2025) under the age category of 40.

Link for Research Profile: https://kurranarendra.wixsite.com/echem/home

Instructor Profile

Course Assessment

Assessment may consist of assignments and/or quizzes and/or viva and/or exams.