Supriya Ghosh receives Amelar and Lodge Fellowship
Supriya Ghosh has received the Richard D. Amelar and Arthur S. Lodge Fellowship for Outstanding Collaborative Research in Materials for 2022-23. This award is given to a student whose research interests encompass the overlapping scope of chemistry and chemical engineering and materials science. Award winners must have demonstrated excellence in their areas of interest and a willingness to collaborate with other students and/or research groups.
Supriya is a graduate student in chemical engineering advised by Professor Andre Mkhoyan in The Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science (CEMS). Her research focuses on developing and utilizing low-dose analytical scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) techniques to study the crystalline structure and properties of electron-beam sensitive materials at the sub-nanometer length scales. Using these techniques, she has worked on characterizing the atomic structure as well as chemical compositions for porous nanomaterials (zeolites and metal organic frameworks (MOFs)) for applications in catalysis and separations.
In her initial work, Supriya collaborated with CEMS Professor Emeritus Michael Tsapatsis’ research group at Johns Hopkins University to investigate the atomic structure of different porous zeolite frameworks. Her work focused on studying the atomic structure of MFI nanosheets synthesized using different novel approaches; to identify unique one-dimensional defects and characterize large aspect ratio MFI nanosheets to confirm their high quality as well as defect-free nature, allowing them to be aligned and packed to form membranes with extremely high performance in xylene isomer separations.[1] Further, in a multi-institution effort, Supriya and coworkers were able to identify the atomic structure of a newly synthesized hierarchical zeolite system called few-unit-cell domain pentasil (FDP) comprising of sub-10 nm crystals of MFI-type zeolite. This study was a significant step towards the development and understanding in the formation of crystalline few-unit cell sized zeolites, which are highly desirable for their superior catalytic and adsorption properties. [2] She also led a study to identify the nature of interaction of an electron-beam with a zeolitic imidazole framework (ZIF) MOF system, identifying dynamic changes in both the crystalline structure as well as local chemical modification at the molecular level, critical in e-beam patterning of these systems. [3] Since then, Supriya has worked with Professor Chris Leighton’s group to use STEM and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) to investigate first order valence transitions in strain-engineered perovskite oxides. She has also collaborated with Professor Nitin Samarth’s group at Penn State University to work on studying the atomic structure and composition of interfaces for various 2-dimensional layered van der Waals heterostructures, for spintronic device applications.
Currently, her research focus is towards extending low-dose STEM techniques to investigate atomic-scale defects in perovskite oxide thin films, through collaborations with Professor Bharat Jalan in CEMS and Professor JP Wang groups in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Supriya was born in Mumbai, India and went to the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai for her undergraduate studies, earning a Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 2017. She joined the University of Minnesota in 2017 to pursue her Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Mkhoyan, where her research is supported by the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC-UMN) funded by the National Science Foundation.
[1] D. Kim, S. Ghosh, N. Akter, A. Kraetz, M. Shete, X. Duan, K. Kwak, N. Rangnekar, J. R. Johnson, K. Narasimharao, M. A. Malik, S. Al-Thabaiti, B. McCool, J. A. Boscoboinik, K. A. Mkhoyan, M. Tsapatsis “Twin-free, directly-synthesized MFI nanosheets with improved thickness uniformity and their use in membrane fabrication” Sci. Adv., 8, eabm8162 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm8162.
[2] P. Lu, S. Ghosh, M. S. de Mello, H. S. Kamaluddin, X. Li, G. Kumar, X. Duan, M. Abeykoon, J. A. Boscoboinik, L. Qi, H. Dai, S. Al-Thabaiti, K. Narasimharao, Z. Khan, J. D. Rimer, A. T. Bell, P. Dauenhauer, K. A. Mkhoyan, M. Tsapatsis “Few-unit-cell MFI zeolite synthesized using a simple di-quaternary ammonium structure directing agent” Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed., 60, 19214-19221 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.202104574.
[3] S. Ghosh, P. Kumar, H. Yun, M. Tsapatsis, K.A. Mkhoyan “Two Distinct Stages of Structural Modification of ZIF-L MOF under Electron-Beam Irradiation” Chemistry of Materials, 33, 5681-5689 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.1c01332.