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Dr K Ananthanarayanan
Research Professor,
Department of Chemistry,
SRM Institute of Science and Technology,
Chennai, India.
Email Id: ananthak@srmist.edu.in
              kananthaz@gmail.com 
Biography

        Prof. K. Ananthanarayanan is a materials scientist focusing on photovoltaics and a passionate academician with over twenty years of post-Ph.D. experience, including more than nine years at the Institute-Industry Interface at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), one of the world's foremost photovoltaic research institutions. Currently serving as Professor in the Department of Chemistry, SRMIST his research is centered on next-generation photovoltaic technologies encompassing organic solar cells, perovskite solar cells, tandem solar cells. He was involved in the establishment of the Organic Photovoltaics Laboratory at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) in a Class 100K clean room spanning 200 m2, and after returning to India he built a comprehensive pilot line facility for fabricating organic and perovskite solar cells, equipped with inert atmosphere glovebox, physical vapour deposition system, and a full suite of device characterization tools at SRM Institute of Science and Technology.

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A prolific inventor and technology translator, Prof. Ananthanarayanan is the inventor or co-inventor of eight patents spanning the United States, India, China, South Korea, Singapore, and international PCT filings. Among his most significant contributions is the design and development of novel encapsulants for next-generation solar cells - a technology that has been successfully transferred to a leading adhesive and sealant manufacturer. He has also pioneered a "pseudo bi-layer" device architecture for organic solar cells that improved the device efficiency by 40% over conventional designs, and also contributed to the development of a liquid-based passivation and anti-reflective coating process for silicon solar cells. His U.S. Patent underpinned a funded project for mass-producing mesoporous TiO₂ as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries.

 

Prof. Ananthanarayanan's scientific output spans leading international journals including Energy & Environmental Science, EES Solar, Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Dalton Transactions, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, ACS Applied Energy Materials, ACS Energy & Fuels, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells among many others. His work has been recognized with a cover article in Energy & Environmental Science and cited as a high-impact contribution by the journal's editorial board. As principal investigator, he has successfully completed a DST-SERB-EMR funded project and a DST-SERB National Post-Doctoral Fellowship mentorship award. He also organized the Indo–German Photovoltaic Workshop DEEPT-2023 funded by IGSTC which brought together 30 invited speakers and over 100 participants from India and Germany, reflecting his strong commitment to international scientific collaboration.

 

Beyond research, Prof. Ananthanarayanan is a dedicated and highly effective educator. He has consistently earned near-perfect student feedback scores and has played an active role in syllabus reform and curriculum benchmarking for undergraduate chemistry courses. A devoted mentor, he has guided seven completed and six ongoing Ph.D. scholars, and supervised twelve Master's and Bachelor's thesis students many of whom have gone on to careers in academia and industry. Selected for the Tamil Nadu Technology Hub (iTNT) bootcamp programme and IInventiv-25 based on his patent and product development work, he continues to bridge the worlds of research, innovation, and education.

Professional Experience

February 2026 – present: Professor (Research), Department of Chemistry, SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST), Chennai

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July 2016 – present: Research Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST), Chennai.

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December 2013 – May 2016: Senior Research Scientist, Novel PV Concepts Cluster, Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), National University of Singapore, Singapore.

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January 2013 – May 2013: Senior Research Scientist, May 2009 – December 2012: Research Scientist, Organic Solar Cells Group, Novel PV Concepts Cluster, Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), National University of Singapore, Singapore.

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January 2008 – March 2009: Research Scientist, NanoCore, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

Professional appointments/memberships

  • Member, Material Research Society (MRS-S), Singapore.

  • Member, Solar Energy Society of India (SESI)

  • Member, Chemical Research Society of India

  • Member, Materials Research Society of India

  • Member, IEEE

Current research focus

  • Development of highly stable perovskite, organic/perovskite tandem solar cells

  • Development of novel device architecture for high efficiency organic solar cells

  • Development of novel transition metal oxides as interfacial layers for highly stable organic solar cells

Research interests

  • Flexible solar cells for low power electronics

  • Organic solar cells

  • Organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells (Perovskite solar cells)

  • Development of anti-reflection layers and passivation layers for silicon solar cells using low-temperature solution process

Selected publications

  • Venu Rajendran Muthukumar, Saraswathi Ganesan, Vidya Sudhakaran Menon, Rohith Kumar Raman, Ananthan Alagumalai, Sangeetha Ashok Kumar, Ananthanarayanan Krishnamoorthy. “Manganese dopant induced isoelectric point tuning of ZnO electron selective layer enables improved interface stability in Cesium-formamidinium based planar perovskite solar cells”. ACS Applied Energy Materials, 2022, 5, 6, 6671–6686.  https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.2c00170.

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  • Ananthan Alagumalai, Venu Rajendran Muthukumar, Saraswathi Ganesan, Vidya Sudhakaran Menon, Rohith Kumar Raman, Sai Manohar Chelli, Sai Muthukumar Vijayasayee, Senthil A. Gurusamy Thangavelu, Ananthanarayanan Krishnamoorthy. “Interface modification with holistically designed push-pull D-π-A organic small molecule facilitates band alignment engineering, efficient defect passivation and enhanced hydrophobicity in mixed cation planar perovskite solar cells”. ACS Applied Energy Materials, 2022, 5, 6, 6783-6796. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.2c00400.​

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  • Saraswathi Ganesan, Venu Rajendran Muthukumar, Rohith Kumar Raman, Vidya Sudhakaran Menon, Ananthanarayanan Krishnamoorthy. Appropriate third monovalent A-site cation incorporation in formamidinium cesium lead iodide for defect passivation and efficiency improvement in perovskite solar cells. International Journal of Energy Research, 2022, 1- 18, https://doi.org/10.1002/er.8253.​

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  • Venu Rajendran Muthukumar, Ganesan, S, Sudhakaran Menon, V, Raman, R.K., Alagumalai, A. and Krishnamoorthy, A. “Cesium Iodide Incorporation in Tin Oxide Electron Transport Layer for Defect Passivation and Efficiency Enhancement in Double Cation Absorber-Based Planar Perovskite Solar Cells”. Energy Technology, 2021, 9: 2100492. https://doi.org/10.1002/ente.202100492. 

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  • Tunable Yellow-Green Emitting Cyclotriphosphazene Appended Phenothiazine Hydrazone Hybrid Material: Synthesis, Characterisation, Photophysical and Electrochemical studies Dinesh Kumar Chelike, † Ananthan Alagumalai, † Muthukumar V. R.,$ Senthil A. Gurusamy Thangavelu,†* Ananthanarayanan Krishnamoorthy“  New J. Chem., 2020, DOI: 10.1039/D0NJ02976A

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  • All-in-one solar cell: Solution processed, efficient, stable and light-soaking free diketopyrrolopyrrole based small molecule inverted organic solar cells with novel interfacial layers” Lim Fang Jeng, Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan* and Ho Ghim Wei Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 150 (2016) 19.(*Corresponding author). Impact Factor: 4.732 

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  • “Addressing the light-soaking issue in inverted organic solar cells using chemical bath deposited fluorinated TiOx electron transport layer” Lim Fang Jeng, Set Ying Ting, Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan, Jianyong Ouyang,Joachim Luther and Ho Ghim Wei Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 3 (2015) 314. Impact Factor: 8.262

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  • “Device stability and light-soaking characteristics of high efficiency benzodithiophene-thienothiophenecopolymer based inverted organic solar cells with F-TiOx electron transport layer” Lim Fang Jeng, Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan and Ho Ghim Wei ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 7 (2015) 12119. Impact Factor: 7.145  

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  • “Influence of novel fluorosurfactant modified PEDOT:PSS hole transport layer on the performance of inverted organic solar cells” Lim Fang Jeng, Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan, Joachim Luther and Ho Ghim Wei Journal of Materials Chemistry, 22 (2012) 25057.Impact Factor: 6.626 

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  • “Origin of hole selectivity and the role of defects in low temperature solution-processed molybdenum oxide interfacial layer for organic solar cells” Kim Hai Wong, Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan, Joachim Luther and Palani Balaya Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 116 (2012) 16346.Impact Factor: 4.509 

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  • “P3HT based solution-processed pseudo bi-layer organic solar cell with enhanced performance” LNSA Thummalakunta,Chian Haw Yong, Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan* & Joachim Luther. Organic Electronics, 13 (2012) 2008.(*Corresponding author). Impact Factor: 3.471 

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  • “Enhanced photocurrent and stability of organic solar cells using solution-based NiO interfacial layer” Kim Hai Wong, Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan, Marc Daniel Heinemann, Joachim Luther, Palani Balaya. Solar Energy, 86 (2012) 3190. Impact Factor: 3.469 

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  • “Analysis of a Device Model for Organic Pseudo-Bilayer Solar Cells” Zhang Teng, Erik Birgersson, Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan, Yong Chian Haw, L. N. S. A. Thummalakunta, and Joachim Luther Journal of Applied Physics,112 (2012) 084511. Impact Factor: 2.101 

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  • “Formation and Characterisation of Solution Processed “Pseudo-Bilayer” Organic Solar cells” Marc Daniel Heinemann, Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan*, LNSA Thummalakunta, Chian Haw Yong & Joachim Luther. 'Green' The International Journal of Sustainable Energy Conversion and Storage,1 (2011) 291.(*Corresponding author). 

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  • “Solid State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell with TiO2/NiO Hetero-junction: Effect of Particle Size and Layer Thickness on the Photovoltaic performance” Kim Hai Wong, Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan, Satyanarayana Reddy Gajjela and Palani Balaya. Materials Chemistry and Physics, 125 (2011) 553. Impact Factor: 2.101 

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  • “Synthesis of mesoporous titanium dioxide by soft template approach: Characterisation and Application in Dye Sensitised Solar Cells”Satyanarayana Reddy Gajjela+, Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan+, Christopher Yap, Michael Gratzel and Palani Balaya. Energy & Environmental Science, 3 (2010) 838. (+ authors contributed equally). Impact Factor: 25.427 

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Selected patents

  • “Crystalline Mesoporous Titanium Dioxide and the Use Thereof in Electrochemical Devices” Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan, KuppanSaravanan, and Palani Balaya, U.S. Patent No: US 8,968,931 B2 dated 03.03.2015. 

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  • “Mesoporous Metal Phosphate Materials for Energy Storage Application” Krishnamoorthy Ananthanarayanan, KuppanSaravanan, Lee Hwang Sheng and Palani Balaya U.S. Patent Application No: US 20130143123 Al dated 06.06.2013

SRM Institute of Science and Technology

Kattankulathur, Chengalpattu District,

Tamil Nadu, India

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