Battery researcher and Loyola's Assistant Professor Dr. Progna Banerjee's scientific research featured in the US DOE office
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognized the power of adaptation that that makes the DOE workforce stronger during an hour-long celebration of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). A mural of artwork submitted by DOE employees, each capturing their personal takes on the theme “Art of the Possible" was unveiled on Oct 24, 2024. The works included paintings, photographs, tapestries, ceramics, and other media. Visitors to the Forrestal building can view the mural outside the auditorium.
Loyola's newly hired Assistant Professor in the Inorganic Chemistry specialty, Dr. Progna Banerjee's electron microscopy data was part of this mural in DOE building in Washington, D.C. While a postdoctoral researcher at Argonne National Laboratory Dr. Banerjee pursued the synthesis-driven understanding of growth and assembly of energy materials in collaboration with the Advanced Photon Source and the Center for Nanoscale Materials. Dr. Banerjee creates nanoscale inorganic materials using colloidal synthetic strategies and follows the morphological evolution of these nanocrystals during their growth and post-synthetic modifications using advanced electron microscopy (TEM/STEM/EDS) techniques. During one such experiment with CsPbBr3 nanocrystals she observed the addition of chiral organic molecules (ligands) provided glue-like interfaces which pulled the small pieces of these nanocrystals together into larger sheets. The shape and size of the ensuing structures were tunable according to the chirality (handed ness) and quantity of the ligands. This study is currently under preparation and will be descriptive of the various mechanisms responsible for the "self-assembly" of the <10 nm (10^-9 m) nanocrystals into hierarchical dimensions spanning microns (10^-6 m) or millimeters (10^-3 m) of dimensions. The applicability of these nanocrystals is in the domain of solar energy devices.
Dr. Banerjee will be advancing energy materials research related to batteries at Loyola with her PBEnergyLab group members through synthetic design and discovery of inorganic and organic nanoscale materials. To aid in the compositional and metastable structural discovery of low temperature solid Li and Na-ion battery electrolytes: her group will be conducting various advanced studies at Northwestern University's Integrated Molecular Structure Education and Research Center (IMSERC), Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, and at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
See more at - DOE Art of the Possible
Dr. Banerjee's Lab - Banerjee Lab