Chemical and Physical Sciences

The Chemical and Physical Sciences division of the NIFS covers research under four main themes.

The Condensed Matter Physics and Solid state Chemistry project of the NIFS focuses on research on synthesizing and characterizing technologically important novel materials for dye-sensitized solar cells, rechargeable batteries, electrochromic display devices and polymer nanofibres. Developing and characterizing polymer gel electrolytes, nanofibres, colloidal quantum dots, nanostructurally modified photoanodes, plasmonic and quantum dot solar cells are some of the ongoing projects.

Nanotechnology and Physics of Materials are two of the most progressive branches of the Materials Science and Technology field. The Nanotechnology and Physics of Materials Project of NIFS commenced its work in January 2013. At present, basic and fundamental scientific aspects of advanced synthetic materials and advanced materials derived from Sri Lankan minerals, are carried out under this project.

Energy & Advanced Material Chemistry project mainly focuses on chemistry and physics of new materials for the conversion of solar energy into chemical and electrical energies. Dye-sensitized, Q-dot and polymer solar cells, artificial chemical devices mimicking photosynthesis for splitting water, converting atmospheric carbon dioxide to produce various forms of environmentally clean fuels are some of the major work currently undertaken.

Material Processing & Device Fabrication project of the NIFS involves experimentation and basic studies on nationally relevant and important research areas with emphasis on graphite and graphite-based devices, and low cost and high capacity carbon supercapacitors. Also, investigations related to solar cells, Energy storage and other electronic devices based on new materials, primarily generated from local minerals are currently under investigation.