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Akila Thenuwara

Thenuwara.jpg

Temple University
Department of Chemistry
Beury 241
1901 N. 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122

Phone: (215) 594-3114
Email: akila.thenuwara@temple.edu

Web:
http://sites.temple.edu/strongingroup

Akila received his bachelors in Chemistry from University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka) in 2013.  After completing the BSc he came to Temple (Chemistry) in fall 2013 and joined the Strongin group in spring 2014. 

Research Interests

  • Photoelectrochemical water splitting and carbon dioxide reduction using 2D layered materials
  • Liquid phase exfoliation of layered nanomaterials into 2D nanosheets
  • Oxidation of arsenite to arsenate on birnessite in the presence of light

Publications

  • Akila C. Thenuwara, Samantha L. Shumlas, Nuwan H. Attanayake, Elizabeth B. Cerkez, Ian G. McKendry, Laszlo Frazer, Eric Borguet, Qing Kang, Michael J. Zdilla, Jianwei Sun, and Daniel R. Strongin, "Copper-Intercalated Birnessite as a Water Oxidation Catalyst." Langmuir 31.46 (2015): 12807-12813.
  •  Akila C. Thenuwara, Elizabeth B. Cerkez, Samantha L. Shumlas, Nuwan H. Attanayake, Ian G. McKendry, Laszlo Frazer, Eric Borguet, Qing Kang, Richard C. Remsing, Michael L. Klein, Michael J. Zdilla and Daniel R. Strongin "Nickel Confined in the Interlayer Region of Birnessite: an Active Electrocatalyst for Water Oxidation." Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2016).DOI10.1002/anie.201601935
  • Akila C. Thenuwara, Samantha L. Shumlas, Nuwan H. Attanayake, , Ian G. McKendry Yaroslav V. Aulin, Qiao Qiao, Yimei Zhu, Eric Borguet, Michael J. Zdilla, and Daniel R. Strongin. "Intercalation of Cobalt into the Interlayer of Birnessite Improves Oxygen Evolution Catalysis." ACS Catalysis (2016) DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.6b01980
  • 4)Ian G. McKendry, Akila C. Thenuwara,  Jianwei Sun, Haowei Peng, John P. Perdew, Daniel R. Strongin and Michael J. Zdilla “Water oxidation catalyzed by cobalt oxide supported on the mattagamite phase of CoTe2.” ACS Catalysis (2016), 6, pp 7393–7397 DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.6b01878
  • Samantha L Shumlas; Soujanya Singireddy, Akila C Thenuwara; Nuwan H Attanayake; Richard J Reeder, and Daniel R Strongin “Oxidation of arsenite to arsenate on birnessite in the presence of light” Geochemical Transactions,17.1 (2016): 5