Focus: Energy materials, especially for electrocatalysis and water splitting.

Dr. Kumar has extensively studied titanium nitride (TiN) and titanium oxynitride (TiNxOy) thin films synthesized via pulsed laser deposition. His group investigates how varying substrate temperature, oxygen/nitrogen content, and in-situ oxidation influence electronic structure, plasmonic properties, and catalytic efficiency. The goal is to develop cost-effective, earth-abundant materials with tailored bandgaps and surface properties suitable for energy conversion applications such as the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in water splitting. His team also combines experimental data with computational modeling to predict and validate material behaviors, such as charge transfer mechanisms and band edge alignment.