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Banerjee, Progna

Assistant Professor

Education

NST Center Core Postdoctoral appointee, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois USA

NSF-MRSEC Postdoctoral Fellow, J. J. McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA

EBI-Shell ALS Postdoctoral Fellow, Energy Storage Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA 

PhD. University of Ilinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois USA

M.S. University of Ilinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois USA

M.Tech Solid State Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

M.Sc. Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Research Interests

The advancement of lithium-ion batteries of the next generation of energy storage applications with non-flammable chemistries while not sacrificing electrochemical performance metrics depends on the development of inorganic solid-state electrolytes. My research group implements colloidal wet chemical methods to synthesize nanoparticles (NPs) across various material classes (chalcogenides, halides, nitrides etc) with reaction times, stoichiometries and synthesis temperatures as variable parameters. We perform extensive structural analyses of various intermediates and end products from our syntheses using x-ray-based techniques such as X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) to determine their crystal symmetries, valence states of cations and coordination environments respectively. We investigate their lithiation and sodiation as appropriate through cation exchange under ambient conditions. We complement these studies with Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) imaging to understand the morphologies, sizes and reaction sites in more detail. Our future research will concentrate on finding intermediate phase formations during the cation exchange process in order to increase a better understanding of the lithiation/sodiation mechanism. Potential superionic behavior are being examined using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The electrochemical characterization will be conducted to evaluate its properties as a solid-state electrolyte. By addressing important issues in energy storage technologies, the observed structural evolution and possible superionic properties open the door for incorporating the materials synthesized by my group into lithium and sodium-ion battery designs.

 

Thrust IA. Development of new battery chemistries utilizing colloidal syntheses of atomically precise nanomaterials 

  1. Battery fabrication and testing using newly discovered materials in our lab

Thrust II. Integrate automation into synthesis & material testing

Thrust III. Understanding of coordination environment of cations during synthetic stages and their correlation with defect chemistries in solid electrolytes 

Thrust IV. Utilizing liquid cell insitu transmission electron microscopy and small angle xray scattering studies to elucidate self-assembly processes in nanomaterials 

 

To join our research group as a graduate researcher (PhD, MS) or postdoctoral scholar: see instructions at https://pbanerjeelab.com/join-us/

 

Publications/Research Listings

2025

  1. O. Saliu, Y. Xu, K. Zervos, I. Campbell, E. Fapounda, P. Banerjee*, Charge Transport in Functional Ligand Capped Nanocrystals and Nanoclusters for Energy Applications 2025, submitted.
  2. P. Banerjee*, et. al., Oriented attachment in halide perovskite nanoplatelets with functional chiral organic ligands, 2025, submitted.
  3. P. Banerjee*, et. al., The Role of Solvent in Assembly of CdSe Nanoplatelets, 2025, submitted.
  4. Y. Xu, K. Zervos, I. Campbell, S. Choudhary, N. Powar, L. Al-Khaled, P. Banerjee*, Colloidal Hot Injection Syntheses of Superionic CuBSe2 as Candidate Solid Electrolytes for Li-ion Batteries, 2025, submitted.

For a full list of journal articles, see https://pbanerjeelab.com/publications/

 

 

Awards

Selected awards Post-Ph.D

2022 American Chemical Society-CAS Future Leader (1 of 30 awardees selected globally and from a wide array of scientific disciplines)

2021-2024 Center Postdoc Appointee, 1 of 8 postdocs selected at The Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory

2021 American Chemical Society P2F (Postdoc to Faculty) Future Faculty Scholar

2020-21 Postdoctoral Fellow, MRSEC, UT Austin

2019-20 EBI-Shell ALS affiliated Postdoctoral Fellow, Berkeley Laboratory

Selected awards During Ph.D

2018 Scott Anderson Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award, Physics Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2017 University fellowship including travel grant, Graduate College, UIUC

2017 64th AVS Prairie Chapter Symposium Registration Waiver