Santosh Kumar

Santosh completed his PhD in nanomaterials for clean energy and environmental applications at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Warangal in 2014, with a visiting research period at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India. Prior to his PhD, he was awarded the CSIR-UGC NET Lectureship (India) in 2008 and worked as a Lecturer at Sardar Patel College, Osmania University. He also gained industrial R&D experience as a chemist at Sapala Organics Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad.

Following his PhD, Santosh moved to the United Kingdom and held postdoctoral research positions at the Energy & Bioproducts Research Institute, Aston University (2015–2018), the University of Bath (2018–2019), and Imperial College London (2019–2021), before joining Diamond Light Source in 2021.

He has published over 55 research articles and five book chapters (ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1352-9945) with more than 7000 citations (Google Scholar) and a h-index of 35 to date.

Santosh is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) and a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Please refer to my Google Scholar or ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1352-9945) profile for the full list of publications.

📚 Selected & Recent

2026

• Key Role of Oxidizing Species Driving Water Oxidation Revealed by Time-Resolved Optical and X-ray Spectroscopies
  Nature Materials 25 (5), 799–807 (2026)

• Mechanistic Study of Glycerol Electro-Oxidation on Ni(OH)₂/NiOOH Electrodes
  Journal of the American Chemical Society 148 (15), 16119–16128 (2026)

• A Catalyst-Coated Mesoporous Carbon–Membrane Electrode Assembly for In Situ Soft X-ray XPS and NEXAFS Studies of Electrocatalytic Interfaces
  ACS Electrochemistry (2026)
  DOI: 10.1021/acselectrochem.5c00554

2025

• Spectroscopic Investigation into P(NDI2OD-T2) Charge Localization
  Chemistry of Materials 37, 7793–7803 (2025)

• Understanding the Chemical and Electronic Properties of Sub-Monolayer TiO₂ on High Surface Area Silica for Jet Fuel Synthesis Applications
  Advanced Functional Materials 36 (1), e02818 (2026)

• Operando XPS and NEXAFS to Link the OER Mechanism with Fast Electro-Oxidation of Organic Pollutants on a Porous NiMnO₃–rGO Anode
  Journal of Materials Chemistry A 13, 40090–40104 (2025

2024

• An Electrochemical Flow Cell for Operando XPS and NEXAFS Investigation of Solid–Liquid Interfaces
  Journal of Physics: Energy 6, 036001 (2024)

• VerSoX B07-B: A High-Throughput XPS and Ambient Pressure NEXAFS Beamline at Diamond Light Source
  Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 31, 578–589 (2024)

• Spinel Ferrites MFe₂O₄ (M = Co, Cu, Zn) for Photocatalysis: Theoretical and Experimental Insights
  Journal of Materials Chemistry A 12, 29645–29656 (2024)

📚 Earlier Highly Cited Papers

• Graphite-Protected CsPbBr₃ Perovskite Photoanodes Functionalised with Water Oxidation Catalyst for Oxygen Evolution in Water
  Nature Communications 10, 2097 (2019)

• g-C₃N₄/NiAl-LDH 2D/2D Hybrid Heterojunction for High-Performance Photocatalytic Reduction of CO₂ into Renewable Fuels
  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 10, 18826–18836 (2018)

• Facile Synthesis of Hierarchical Cu₂O Nanocubes as Visible-Light Photocatalysts
  Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 179, 76–84 (2016)

• Fe-Doped and Mediated Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanosheets for Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance under Natural Sunlight
  Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2, 9274–9282 (2014)

• Cost-Effective and Eco-Friendly Synthesis of Novel and Stable N-Doped ZnO/g-C₃N₄ Core–Shell Nanoplates with Excellent Visible-Light Photocatalysis
  Nanoscale 6, 5412–5419 (2014)

• Synthesis of Magnetically Separable and Recyclable g-C₃N₄–Fe₃O₄ Hybrid Nanocomposites with Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance under Visible Light
  The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 117, 25840–25844 (2013)

Santosh’s interdisciplinary research expertise and interests include operando electrochemistry, X-ray spectroscopy including near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS), functional nanomaterials, surface and interface chemistry, photo(electro)catalysis, CO₂ and biomass utilisation, and clean energy.

Please get in touch if you have any questions or are interested in collaborating and applying for beamtime at the B07 beamline or a postdoctoral fellowship.

I collaborate with national and international partners to advance the capabilities of the B07 beamline at Diamond Light Source, specialising in soft X-ray spectroscopy and operando spectroelectrochemistry. My research focuses on developing methods to probe catalytic processes under realistic working conditions, enabling mechanistic insight into energy and environmental catalysis.

I also serve as Project Manager for Diamond’s International Science Partnership Fund (ISPF) programme, a collaboration between Diamond Light Source, the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, and the Paul Scherrer Institute. In addition, I supervise a joint PhD project with Johnson Matthey and Imperial College London and contribute actively to the UK Catalysis and surface chemsitry communities, supporting collaboration across academia and industry.

Please get in touch if you have any questions or are interested in collaboration.

• Operando electrochemistry 
• X-ray spectroscopy (NAP-XPS, NEXAFS)
• Surface and interface chemistry
• Functional nanomaterials
• Photo(electro)catalysis
• CO₂ & biomass conversion
• Clean energy systems