Biography
I (research portfolio: https://prognabanerjee.wixsite.com/prognaphasespace;) am a NST core-funded postdoctoral appointee at Argonne with strong interdisciplinary research background in experimental condensed matter physics, materials chemistry and electronics. I earned Ph.D. (Physics with Materials Chemistry) and M.S. (Strongly Correlated Condensed Matter) degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA in Dec. 2018 & 2014, respectively. Before that, I completed M.Tech. (Solid State Technology) and M.Sc. (Physics) degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Prior to starting my current position with the Argonne National Laboratory, I was an NSF MRSEC postdoc fellow at the University of Texas, Austin, USA (2020-2021) investigating light-matter interactions in bioinspired nanostructures; and an EBI-Shell ALS affiliated postdoc fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, USA (2019) in battery science.
During my Ph.D. I used a template-based synthetic technique-‘cation exchange’ in chalcogenide nanocrystals obtained from quantum dots and established their unusual structural arrangement as the cause for exhibition of room-temperature superionicity and topological insulating properties. At UT, as a part of the NSF MRSEC IRG1 team I studied structure-optical property relationship in nanocrystal assemblies, such as superlattices & gels. I led the materials sub team comprising of researchers from UIUC, UT, and Northwestern on a DOD-funded multi-university research project (MURI) with my work focusing on understanding the mechanism of light interaction in leafhopper-insect derived nanostructures called brochosomes with inherently high antireflective properties ascribed to their buckyball-like structures. Presently at Argonne, I am the materials chemistry part of an interdisciplinary team looking to discover nanomaterials using Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning assisted colloidal synthesis and post-synthetic cation exchange combinatorics using an autonomous liquid-handling platform, for the expansion of nanomaterials library into unconventional metastable phases and studying the emergence of various physicochemical properties in these systems. When not actively working at the lab benches or coding to improve data analysis & acquisition tools, I revel in mentoring students, in aiding to generate and channelize their enthusiasm towards understanding the cohesive story behind their project.
Selected Publications: (Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3OCCLyMAAAAJ&hl=en)
I. Unusual phases and emergence of properties in nanocrystals produced through templated design:
1. White, S.*; Banerjee, P.*; (contribute equally), Jain, P.K.; Liquid-like cationic sub-lattice in copper selenide clusters, Nature Communications, 8, 14514 (2017) DOI: https:/doi/org/10.1038/ncomms14514 . link
UIUC NEWS BUREAU PRESS RELEASE: TINY NANOCLUSTERS COULD SOLVE BIG PROBLEMS FOR LITHIUM ION BATTERIES link
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE STORY: CHARGING AHEAD: THE FUTURE OF BATTERIES link
R&D MAGAZINE HIGHLLIGHT: NANOCLUSTERS HELP IMPROVE LITHIUM ION BATTERIES link
AZONANO STORY: NANOCLUSTERS AND THE FUTURE OF LITHIUM BATTERIES link
HIGHLIGHTED ON CEMAG LAYERED GRAPHENE, IMAGING NEMATODES, PREVENTING BATTERY EXPLOSIONS link
ALSO FEATURED ON PHYSORG, EUREKALERT, AND OTHER SCIENCE MEDIA
2. Banerjee, P., Jain, P.K., Lithiation of Copper Selenide Nanocrystals, Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed., 57 (30), 9315-9319 (2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.201803358 FEATURED IN HOT TOPIC: BATTERIES AND SUPERCAPACITORS
3. Torres, D.D.; Banerjee, P.; Pamidighantam, S., Jain, P.K.; A non-natural wurtzite polymorph of HgSe: A potential 3D topological Insulator, Chemistry of Materials, 29 (15), 6356-6366 (2017). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b01674.
4. White, S.L.; Banerjee, P.; Chakraborty, I.; Jain, P.K.; Ion Exchange Transformation of Magic-sized Clusters, Chemistry of Materials, 28 (22), 8391-9398 (2016). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b03882. link
ACS AUTHOR CHOICE ARTICLE
5. Heo, J.; Torres, D.D.; Banerjee, P.; Jain, P.K.; In-situ electron microscopy mapping of an order-disorder transition in a superionic conductor, Nature Communications, 10, 1505 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09502-5 link
II. Probing nanoparticle plasmonic interactions through STM, and EELS methods:
1. Nguyen, H.*.; Banerjee, P.*; (contribute equally), Nguyen, D.; Lyding, J.W.; Gruebele, M.; Jain, P.K.; STM imaging of localized surface plasmons on individual gold nanoislands, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 9 (8), 1970-1976 (2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b00502.
2. Borodinov, N.; Banerjee, P.; Cho, S.H.; Milliron, D.J.; Ovchinnikova, O.S.; Vasudevan, R.K.; Hachtel, J.A.; Enhancing Hyperspectral EELS Analysis of Complex Plasmonic Nanostructures with Pan-Sharpening, Journal of Chemical Physics, 154, 014202, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0031324
FEATURED ARTICLE link
3. Kim, A.; Vo, T.; An, H.; Banerjee, P.; Yao, L.; Zhou, S.; Kim, C.; Milliron, D.J.; Glotzer, S.C.; Chen, Q.; Symmetry-breaking in patch formation on gold nanoprisms via supramolecular “bandwagoning”, Nature Communications, in press, 2022.