Physical and Materials Chemistry

The group's research primarily focuses on understanding diverse electrochemical phenomena and their correlation with renewable energy. The know-how from fundamental studies is translated into the design and engineering of novel, practical materials for sustainable energy generation and storage applications. The group uses interdisciplinary methodologies to deliver sustainable materials, processes, and systems solutions in energy and the environment. The Government of India's Funding Agencies and Industry financially support the group's R&D work.  

Keywords: Electrochemistry, Energy Storage and Conversion, Materials, Energy Devices/Processes (Batteries, Supercapacitors, Photon Harvesting), Electrocatalysis, Electrosynthesis, Sensing 

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Debalina Deb, Research Associate

Rekha Kumari, Research Associate

    Neeraj Pal, Research Associate

Subhankar Mandal, Research Associate

PhD/Int-PhD Students

Manisha Sanawa, Senior Research Fellow/SRF, IISc

Kunnam Teja Vardhana Reddy, Senior Research Fellow/SRF, IISc (Int-PhD)

Sanhita Pal, Senior Research Fellow/SRF, UGC

Rikta Salui, Senior Research Fellow/JRF, UGC 

Md. Mobarak Hossain, Junior Research Fellow/JRF, DST-INSPIRE

Himanshi, Junior Research Fellow/JRF 

Ankita Konar, Junior Research Fellow/JRF

Rudra, Junior Research Fellow/JRF

Soumyaranjan Mishra, Junior Research Fellow/JRF, CSIR

Muskaan Rawat, Junior Research Fellow/JRF, CFTI

Akshara O. M., Junior Research Fellow/JRF, CSIR

Abhinand S., Junior Research Fellow/JRF

Former Group Members

Shyamal Kumar Das (PhD/2010), Tezpur University

Monalisa Patel (PhD/2010), ACS International India Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru

Shobhna Kapoor (MS-Int-PhD/), IIT-Bombay, Mumbai

Supti Das (PhD/2012), Morrow Battery, Oslo, Norway

Soumit Sankar Mandal (Int-PhD/2013), IISER, Tirupati

Konda Shiva Reddy (PhD/2013)

Sayantan Mazumdar (PhD/2015), Guangdong, China

Sudeshna Sen (PhD/2016)

Subhra Gope (PhD/2017), Mahindra Electric Mobility, Bengaluru

Suman Das (PhD/2017), Exide Energy Solutions, Bengaluru

Tamilselvan M. (Int-PhD/2018), HPCL Green R&D, Bengaluru 

Rudra Narayan Samajdar (Int-PhD/2019), National Physical Laboratory, UK

Sweta Mariam George (ICER) (PhD/2021), Ola Electric, Bengaluru

Ravindra K. Bhardwaj (PhD/2021), NREL, US

Akshatha Venkatesha (PhD/2022), Ola Electric, Bengaluru

Abhishek Bharti (PhD/2022), CNRS-CRISMAT, Caen, France

Sham. J. Mane (PhD, 2024), GFC, Gujarat, India

Asutosh Behera (PhD/2025), Assistant Professor, Rajendra University, Odisha

Vishnu Priya H. R. (PhD, 2025), Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, Germany

Chandrappa K.G. (Project Assistant/2007-09), Govt. Engg. Coll., Ramanagara, Karnataka

Manu M. Patel (Project Assistant/2008-10), School of Basic Sciences, Humanities & Management- MIT Manipal 

Pramod V. Menezes (Project Assistant/2008-10), Huhtamaki Flexible Packaging Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Germany

Rajendra H.B. (Project Assistant/2011-2014)

Santosh A. L.  (Project Assistant/2012-15)

Medhashree H. (Project Assistant/2013-14)

Sneha Malunavar (Project Assistant/2014-18), Austrian Institute of Technology, Vienna, Austria

M. Gnanavel (DS Kothari Fellow/2010-12; 2016-17), Periyar Arts College, TN

Farheen N. Sayed (INSPIRE Faculty/2017-19), Cambridge University, UK

G.R. Dillip (INSPIRE Faculty/2018-2021), MDK SUSTECH, Bengaluru 

Gundegowda Kalligowdanadoddi Kiran (DS Kothari Fellow/2019-21), University of Waterloo, Canada

Ruth Gomes (NPDF/2017-19, RA/2019-2022), University of Nottingham, UK

Homen Lahan (DS Kothari Fellow/2020-22), Atria University, Bengaluru

Dipen Biswakarma (DS Kothari Fellow/2021-24), Dayanand Sagar University, Bengaluru

Priya Murria (MS-Int-PhD/2011), Moderna, Massachusetts, USA

Karthik Narayan Kotha (MS-Int-PhD/2012), USA

Dipak Dutta (Research Associate/2012-17), National Central University, Taiwan

Rupavath Chandar (MS-UG-Res/2023), Wisconsin-Maddison, US

Google Scholar, Web of Science

Recent Publications (2025, 2024, 2023):

1. 
   

2. Subhankar Mandal, Dipen Biswakarma, Aninda J. Bhattacharyya* (2024): Operando Spectroscopy Investigations of the Redox Reactions in Heme and Heme-Proteins, PCCP, DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/D4CP03341H

3. Sham J. Mane, N.B. Joseph, R. Kumari, A. Narayan, Aninda J. Bhattacharyya* (2024): Electrochemical Reduction of Nitrogen to Ammonia Using Zinc Telluride. ACS Materials Au, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmaterialsau.4c00014 

4. Abhishek Bharti, Debalina Deb, Govindaraj Achutharao, Aninda J. Bhattacharyya* (2024): CO2 Crossover to the Li-Anode and its Implications on the Solid Electrolyte Interphase Composition in a Rechargeable Li-CO2 Battery, J. Phys. Chem C, 128, 11543-11551.

5. Akshatha Venkatesha, Gowra Raghupathy Dillip, Tanmay Mohan Bhagwat, Sayak Mandal, Rekha Kumari, Martin Etter, Gopalakrishnan Sai Gautam, Aninda J. Bhattacharyya* (2024): Exploring Cation-Deficient Magnetite as a Cathode for Zinc-ion Aqueous Batteries, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 12 (28), 10411-10422.

6. Asutosh Behera, Deepak Seth, Manish Agarwal, M. Ali Haider, and Aninda Jiban Bhattacharyya* (2024): Exploring Cu-Doped Co3O4 Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysts for Aqueous Zn-Air Batteries, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 16, 17574-17586

7. Abhishek Bharti, Govindaraj Achutharao, and Aninda J. Bhattacharyya* (2023): Efficient Rechargeable Li-CO2 Battery with a Liquid Electrolyte Soluble CuCl2 Electrocatalyst, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 15, 53342-53350.

8. Pal, N., Bhattacharyya, Aninda J.* (2023): Probing the “Universal” Amorphization of Crystalline Sulfur in its Mixture with Ultrahigh Surface Area Porous Carbon, J. Phys. Chem. C 127, 5713-5719.

9. Venkatesha, Akshatha, Seth, Deepak, Varma, Rahul Mahavir, Das, Suman, Agarwal, Manish, Haider, M. Ali, Bhattacharyya, Aninda J.* (2023): A Redox-Active 2-D Covalent Organic Framework as a Cathode in an Aqueous Mixed-Ion Electrolyte Zn-Ion Battery: Experimental and Theoretical Investigations, ChemElectroChem 10, e202201013.

10. George, Sweta M., Deb, Debalina, Zhu, Haijin, Sampath, S., Bhattacharyya, Aninda J.* (2022): Spectroscopic investigations of solvent assisted Li-ion transport decoupled from polymer in a gel polymer electrolyte, Appl. Phys. Lett 121, 223903:1-7

11. Dillip, Gowra Raghupathy, Kiran, Gundegowda Kalligowdanadoddi, Bharti, Abhishek, Bhagwat, Tanmay Mohan, Gautam, Gopalakrishnan Sai *, and Aninda J. Bhattacharyya* (2022): Defective Nanoporous Zinc Cobaltite as a Potential Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalyst, ACS Applied Energy Materials 5, 13635-13644.

12. George, Sweta M., Sampath, S., Bhattacharyya, Aninda J.*, A Self-Standing Flexible Gel Polymer Electrolyte for Dendrite-Free Lithium-Metal Batteries (2022): Batteries & Supercaps 5, e202200252

13. Bharti, Abhishek, Manna, Gouranga, Saha, Pinku, Achutarao, Govindaraj, Bhattacharyya, Aninda J.* (2022): Probing the Function of a Li-CO2 Battery with a MXene/Graphene, Oxide Composite Cathode Electrocatalyst, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 13, 7380−7385.

14. Subhankar Mandal, Rudra N. Samajdar, Sanjukta Parida, Sabyashachi Mishra, and Aninda J. Bhattacharyya* (2022): Transition Metal Phthalocyanines as Redox Mediators in Li–O2 Batteries: A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Influence of 3d Electrons in Redox Mediation, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2022, 14, 26714–26723.

1.  A non-aqueous electrolyte and a battery, a supercapacitor, and electrochromic device and a solar cell including such an electrolyte. Europe Patent (DE, CH, FR, GB, IE),  No EP1505680 B1 dated 3.12.2008. US Patent, No US 7700240 B2 dated 20.4.2010.

2. Ultra-thin Compositions of Lithium Metal Phosphate; Patent No.: 311445; Date of Grant: 23/04/2019 (Date of Filing:  09/05/2012; Date of Expiry: 09/05/2032). 

3. Sn-Alloy Nanoparticle Carbon One-dimensional Assemblies for Rechargeable Batteries; Patent Number: 419771; Date of Grant: 31.01.2023 (Date of Filing: 10/10/2013; Date of Expiry: 10/10/2033) 

4. Battery Cell with in-situ Polymerized Gel Electrolyte for Enhanced Ionic Conductivity and Stability; Patent No: 576824, Date of Grant: 30/12/2025 (Date of Filing: 20/03/2025; Date of Expiry: 20/03/2045) 

5. Scalable Sulfur Composite Cathodes for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries by Prof. Aninda Jiban Bhattacharyya and Dr. Neeraj Pal; Indian Application number: 202541034477, Filed on: 08-Apr-2025, Response to the FER filed on 02/09/2025 (final grant phase). 

Ph.D.: Chemistry/Chemical Engineering/Materials Science & Engineering/Physics/Applied Physics candidates with good CSIR-NET rank (preferable) // GATE score/DST-INSPIRE Fellow. 

MTech(Res): Candidates with Chemical Engineering/Materials Science & Engineering 

There is NO direct entry. Interested candidates should strictly comply with all IISc, Bengaluru admissions criteria. For initial inquiries, interested candidates for PhD/M.Tech (Res.) may contact Prof. Aninda J. Bhattacharyya by E-mail: anindajb@iisc.ac.in

Post-Doctoral Fellow (subject to vacancies): Chemistry/Chemical Engineering/Materials Science & Engineering/Physics/Applied Physics candidates are encouraged to apply via National Level Fellowships/CSIR-RA. 

The lab is also open to hosting women researchers under the DST-WISE-PDF Program (subject to vacancies)

The laboratory is open to hosting BS/MS/B.Tech. (restricted to the above branches of science and engineering only) candidates for Internships and projects (IISc students only). For discussions on research topics and vacancies (subject to IISc/Division norms), don't hesitate to contact anindajb@iisc.ac.in.