Sulphur-doped carbon nitride nanosheets
Visible-light degradation of ciprofloxacin at 10 mg/L in water.
94% degraded in 90 minutes — about 3.2× the rate of undoped material
PhD candidate · Materials Engineering · Bengaluru
Shreya Hegde
Visible-light photocatalysts that break down antibiotic residues in pharmaceutical wastewater — from carbon nitride nanosheets in a beaker to a 20-litre flow reactor run on real effluent.
- 6peer-reviewed publications, 4 first-author
- 131citations (Google Scholar)
- 5h-index (Google Scholar)
- 5conference presentations, 1 best poster
Research
From nanosheets to a pilot reactor
Doctoral work in Bengaluru, and the water remediation project in Pune that came before it.
A reusable heterojunction
A Z-scheme carbon nitride/BiVO4 heterojunction for antibiotic degradation.
88% of activity kept after 5 reuse cycles
Continuous-flow photoreactor
A 20-litre flow reactor with spray-coated photocatalyst panels, run on real pharmaceutical effluent.
81% of total organic carbon removed over 6 hours
Biochar sorbents for arsenic
Biochar-supported iron oxide sorbents for groundwater, tested in 300+ batch adsorption experiments.
Arsenic cut from 200 µg/L to below the 10 µg/L drinking-water limit
Best Poster Award
A poster on the continuous-flow reactor, presented with an international travel grant.
One of 3 awards from 140+ entries
National doctoral fellowship
A five-year competitive doctoral fellowship, upgraded from JRF to SRF in 2022 after departmental review, then a one-year institute extension.
Funded through 2026
Thesis in focus
Carbon nitride photocatalysts for pharmaceutical wastewater
Visible-light degradation of antibiotics, from beaker to flow reactor
Question
Can visible-light photocatalysts break down antibiotic residues in pharmaceutical wastewater?
Approach
Defect engineering and doping of graphitic carbon nitride, a Z-scheme heterojunction, then spray-coated panels in a 20-litre continuous-flow reactor.
Outcome
94% ciprofloxacin degradation in 90 minutes in the lab and 81% total organic carbon removal from real effluent; thesis submission expected December 2026.
Publications
Six papers and one under review
Four first-authored, including a critical review.
- Immobilised carbon nitride coatings for continuous-flow photocatalytic treatment of pharmaceutical effluentACS ES&T Water · 2025
- Photocatalytic removal of antibiotics from wastewater with carbon nitride materials: a critical reviewEnv. Sci.: Water Res. & Tech. · 2025
- Z-scheme carbon nitride/BiVO4 heterojunctions with sustained activity over repeated cycles for antibiotic degradationJ. Env. Chem. Eng. · 2024
- Sulphur-doped graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets for visible-light degradation of ciprofloxacin in waterChem. Eng. J. · 2023
- Nitrogen-vacancy engineering in carbon nitride for peroxymonosulfate activationAppl. Surf. Sci. · 2023 · co-author
- Biochar-supported iron oxide sorbents for low-cost arsenic removal from groundwaterJ. Water Proc. Eng. · 2022 · co-author
- Pilot-scale evaluation of a panel photoreactor on real pharmaceutical wastewaterUnder review · 2026
Conferences
Talks and posters
- International conference on advanced functional materials — Best Poster AwardSingapore · Dec 2025
- National symposium on materials for water treatment — oralChennai · Feb 2025
- International workshop on photocatalysis for environmental remediation — posterBengaluru · Jul 2024
- Annual meeting of a national materials society — posterHyderabad · Nov 2023
- National conference on environmental engineering — posterPune · Jan 2022
Teaching & mentoring
Labs, tutorials and trainees
Teaching-assistant work in the Department of Materials Engineering, and the students she has guided in the lab.
- TA — Materials Characterisation Laboratory (M.Tech core): weekly XRD and SEM sessions34 students a semester · 2021, 2022
- TA — Thermodynamics & Kinetics of Materials (UG): weekly tutorials and 8 problem sets60 students · 2023
- Undergraduate summer interns mentored3
- M.Tech project student co-supervised1
- New lab members trained on XRD, UV-Vis and HPLC12
A materials engineer seeking a postdoctoral position in environmental materials or water treatment from 2027.
Shreya read Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at VNIT Nagpur and ranked 214th in India in GATE 2019 (Metallurgical Engineering). She spent a year as a project assistant at a national chemical research laboratory in Pune, working on arsenic sorbents, before starting her PhD in Bengaluru in 2020.
Her doctoral work covers synthesis and defect engineering of graphitic carbon nitride, heterojunction design, full materials characterisation and scale-up to a continuous-flow reactor. She also maintains her group's photoreactor and chemical-safety records.
- Based inBengaluru, Karnataka
- DepartmentMaterials Engineering
- ResearchPhotocatalysts, antibiotic removal, flow reactors
- ThesisSubmission expected Dec 2026
- SeekingPostdoc from 2027
Laboratory & technical skills
At the bench
Positions & education
Career path
- Aug 2020 — Present
PhD Candidate, Materials Engineering
A national institute of science, Bengaluru
Carbon nitride photocatalysts for pharmaceutical wastewater; coursework CGPA 8.9 / 10; comprehensive examination passed 2022.
- Jul 2019 — Jul 2020
Project Assistant — Water Remediation Materials
A national chemical research laboratory, Pune
Biochar-supported iron oxide sorbents for arsenic removal; led to a co-authored paper in 2022.
- Jul 2015 — May 2019
B.Tech, Metallurgical & Materials Engineering
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur
CGPA 8.7 / 10. GATE 2019 (Metallurgical Engineering), All India Rank 214.
Contact
Hiring a postdoc in water treatment?
shreya.hegde@email.com
- Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
- +91 98451 27390
Fictional candidate — contact details shown as plain text only.