Chemistry graduate student Tathagata Chatterjee is one of five Illinois Ph.D. students awarded fellowships by the PPG Foundation to conduct research that is broadly related to coatings science and specialty materials. Chatterjee is advised by chemistry Prof. Stephan Link. Chatterjee will receive one year of support at 25 percent appointment and a $2,000 travel award to present research at a major scientific meeting.
PPG and the PPG Foundation partner with the University of Illinois to support students preparing for in-demand careers that will shape global innovation and cutting-edge technologies in areas such as polymer science and engineering, chemical engineering, materials science and synthetic organic chemistry. This fellowship enables graduate students focused on organic and inorganic coatings within the Materials Research Laboratory.
Link, Charles W. and Genevieve M. Walton Endowed Professor of Chemistry at Illinois, said Tathagata was his first Illinois graduate student to join his research group since Link came to the University of Illinois from Rice University in 2023.
"In addition to his drive to excel in complex single-particle measurements, he has quickly become a leader in the group. His research is both meticulous as well as clever and forward-looking, challenging me all the time with new ideas and directions," Link said.
Chatterjee's research focuses on the rising global energy demand that drives the need for new specialty materials that can efficiently harvest and convert solar energy. Chatterjee explains his research in his own words:
"Plasmonic nanoparticles are promising candidates: their localized surface plasmon resonances give them large optical cross-sections, allowing them to act as nanoscale antennas that concentrate incident light. Coating these nanoparticles with an adsorbate interface which can act as an acceptor effectively extracts the energy captured in these nanoparticles. The efficiency of energy extraction depends on design principles of both plasmonic nanoparticles and the acceptor adsorbate energy levels. The goal of my research is to characterize interfacial energy transfer in hybrid nanomaterials consisting of plasmonic donors interfaced with soft polymer/molecular coatings. My expertise in correlated single-particle characterization techniques including photothermal absorption, dark-field scattering, and electron microscopy provides unique optical-structural insights to guide design principles of fabricating these structures. Critically, this correlation precisely points out the performance from one single nanoparticle rather than heterogenous effects coming from ensemble techniques. Combining all these aspects of my research goals, my research aims to offer an alternative pathway for predictive material design for high-performance solar coatings to tackle the rising energy demands."
Chatterjee earned his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata, India, in 2023.