Jishnu Bhattacharya

Research Interests

I am interested in understanding basic properties of energy storage materials through computational techniques. Prediction of thermodynamic stability, solubility, voltage profile, diffusion behavior and the connection of these properties with atomic scale electronic structure intrigue me. I take active interest in learing and developing numerical solvers and automation tools related to the materials research.

Current Research

Currently, at northwestern, I am working on Li-ion battery cathodes. For rate enhancement and increased stability, cathodes are often coated with material which does not actively participate in the cell-electrochemistry. I am trying to understand the stability of these coatings, interdiffusion through the interface and reasons why some coating-active pair works better than the other. I am also working on the relative stability of transition metal oxides in different crystallographic structures and how this stability changes with lithium intercalation. Doping is a common strategy to enhance desirable properties in cathode materials. I am trying to elucidate possible doping strategy and its consequence in common battery cathodes.

Biography

I got my PhD from UM, Ann Arbor in 2010. I worked with Prof. Anton Van der Ven on the topics of interstitial diffusion in battery cathodes and thermally activated structural phase transitions. I joined as a postdoc in Wolverton group in October 2010. Originally, I am from West Bengal, India. I got my BE degree in mechanical engineering from Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur in 2002. I worked in the field of power plant design in L&T Ltd before I joined Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for my masters. I worked with Prof. Pradip Dutta on the topic of computational modeling of alloy solification process as part of my master degree program in IISc.

Publications

Relative stability of normal vs. inverse spinel for 3d transition metal oxides as lithium intercalation cathodes, J Bhattacharya, C Wolverton, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 15 (17), 6486-6498 (2013)

Understanding Li Diffusion in Li-Intercalation Compounds, A Van der Ven, J Bhattacharya, AA Belak, Accounts of Chemical Research, 2012

First-principles study of competing mechanisms of non-dilute Li diffusion in spinel LixTiS2, Jishnu Bhattacharya, Anton Van der den, Phy. Rev B, 83, 144302 (2011)

Phase stability and nondilute Li diffusion in spinel Li1+xTi2O4, Jishnu Bhattacharya and Anton Van der Ven, Phy. Rev. B, 81, 104304 (2010)

Linking the electronic structure of solids to their thermodynamic and kinetic properties, A. Van der ven, J.C. Thomas, Q. Xu, J. Bhattacharya, Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, 80, 7, 1393-1410 (2010)

First-principles Prediction of Hydride Phase Stability and the Thermodynamics of Decohesion, A. Van der Ven, Q. Xu and J. Bhattacharya, Effects on Hydrogen on Materials, 632-639 (2009)

Mechanical instabilities and structural phase transformations: The cubic to tetragonal transformation, Jishnu Bhattacharya and Anton Van der Ven, Acta Materialia, 56, 16, 4226-4232 (2008)

An enthalpy model for simulation of dendritic growth, D. Pal, J. Bhattacharya, P. Dutta and S. Chakraborty, Numerical Heat Transfer B, 50, 59-78 (2006)