Electrochemistry is a classical full proof technology with large industrial applications. Since ages its major contribution is in development of batteries. Off lately, apart from this, scope of electrochemistry has widened, and its applicability has been demonstrated for material synthesis, decorative and anti-corrosion coating and in fabrication of sensing devices. The biggest advantage of electrochemical synthesis, apart from user friendly approach is its precision, accuracy and selectivity. The controlled thickness as well as mass and open choice of material has made this technique unique and robust.

Our group is actively involved and focused on the two major area of electrochemistry:

1. Electrochemical fabrication of Electrodes
2. Applications in sensing devices

We have prepared few reusable electrodes namely re-usable nano structured polyaniline film, re-usable nanocomposite modified electrodes comprising of nanostructure polyaniline, graphene, gold nanoparticles and electrochemically reduced graphene oxide film. These electrodes have unique electrochemical property of re-usability of more than 50 times within the potential range of -500 mV to 1000 mV. The developed electrodes have been successfully exploited to fabricate various types of rapid diagnostic sensors like glucose, triglyceride, cholesterol, troponin I and Covid-19 antibody. We have also developed sensor for detection of carcinogenic food toxin (aflatoxin).

Our group is parallelly working on electrochemical synthesis of Metal organic Framework (MOF). We have performed MOF steered rapid (120sec) electrochemical synthesis of anisotropic gold nanostructures (scheme). The developed anisotropic nanostructure modified MOF electrodes have been explored for development of organophosphate pesticide detection sensor. We have also developed sensor for detection of arsenic in ground water.

Our research has motivated us to design mobile app integrated electrochemical hand-held device for detection of organophosphate (OP) pesticide in vegetable extract within 10-100 ng/L. The developed device is stable for 3 months and show minimum interference with other analytes. Recently, we have developed a smart phone tagged hand-held device for detection of COVID-19 antibodies. The device is demonstrating encouraging results with antibody spiked serum samples and the validation is still ON.

Electrochemistry is a field with ocean of opportunities and we as swimmers are diving deep in quest of exploring its real-world applications.