Dr. Bhavana Rikhari

Assistant Professor

Dr. Bhavana Rikhari is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, School of Engineering, at Dayananda Sagar University, Bengaluru. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Anna University, Chennai, with the prestigious Centenary Fellowship from the College of Engineering, Anna University. She holds an M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry from Christ University, Bengaluru.

Dr. Rikhari has 2 years of post-doctoral research experience at CSIR–National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bengaluru, where her research focused on the development and electrochemical evaluation of advanced materials and coatings for biomedical applications, particularly orthopaedic materials. During her doctoral research, she also gained one year of international research experience as a Research Associate at the Research Institute of Advanced Materials (RIAM), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea.

She has 20+ research publications and two book chapters in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, with her recent research contributions spanning corrosion science, surface engineering, advanced coatings, biomaterials, and aerospace materials. Her recent scholarly work includes research on eco-friendly aerospace coatings beyond chromates and metal–organic frameworks for advanced corrosion protection.

Her research interests encompass biomaterials and corrosion of titanium and its alloys, corrosion inhibition of metals and alloys, surface modification and functionalization of engineering materials, electrochemical characterization, advanced protective coatings, and anodization of aluminium alloys for aerospace applications. Her current research increasingly focuses on the development of environmentally sustainable, chrome-free surface engineering and corrosion protection strategies for aerospace-grade aluminium alloys.

She is currently the Principal Investigator of an ongoing VGST-funded research project, titled “Advanced Chrome-Free Acid Anodization for Corrosion Protection of Aircraft-Grade Aluminium Alloys,” with a sanctioned project grant of ₹10 lakh. The project aims to develop sustainable anodization and sealing strategies as environmentally safer alternatives to conventional chromate-based corrosion protection systems for aerospace aluminium alloys.

Dr. Rikhari is also actively involved in research supervision, interdisciplinary collaborations, postgraduate and doctoral research, and the development of advanced electrochemical and surface-engineered materials for biomedical and aerospace applications. Her research vision is directed towards translating fundamental electrochemical and materials chemistry into sustainable, high-performance technologies for critical engineering applications.

Google Scholar:https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BzCmnwkAAAAJ&hl=en