Kankan Patra 

Scientific Officer | Materials Chemistry
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Department of Atomic Energy, India

Designing porous and functional materials for actinide separation, nuclear waste remediation, and sustainable resource recovery.

About

I am a materials chemist working at the interface of porous materials, functional nanomaterials, and nuclear fuel cycle chemistry. My research focuses on translating fundamental structure–property relationships into robust separation, remediation, and resource recovery technologies relevant to radioactive waste management, actinide/lanthanide separation, and sustainable energy systems. My work spans metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), porous organic polymers (POPs), functionalized carbons, magnetic nanostructures, and polymer-composite sorbents, with demonstrated relevance from laboratory-scale mechanisms to process-oriented applications.

Research Interests

Research Impact Snapshot

Research Overview 

My research program is centered on the design, mechanistic understanding, and deployment of functional materials for nuclear fuel cycle chemistry, radioactive waste management, and sustainable resource recovery. My work integrates porous materials, nanostructured adsorbents, and polymer–extractant composites to address some of the most persistent challenges in actinide and lanthanide separation under chemically aggressive and radiologically relevant environments.

My research focuses on actinide and f-block element separation, particularly uranium, plutonium, technetium, cesium, and strontium, from complex acidic and high-ionic-strength matrices. Through the development of task-specific sorbents—such as thiol-functionalized carbon nanotubes, functionalized metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), and ligand-encapsulated polymer composite beads I have demonstrated selective uptake across multiple oxidation states and chemical forms, with clear relevance to nuclear reprocessing and waste streams. These studies combine adsorption thermodynamics, kinetics, and mechanistic analysis to establish structure–function correlations that guide material optimization.

Another core theme of my work is porous framework chemistry for nuclear wastewater remediation. I have contributed comprehensive experimental and review studies on MOFs, covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and porous organic polymers (POPs), highlighting their modular design, tunable functionality, and stability in harsh nuclear environments. My publications address the selective removal of problematic radionuclides such as pertechnetate (⁹⁹TcO₄⁻), oxo-anions, and emerging contaminants, while critically identifying research gaps related to scalability, radiation stability, and process integration.

My research also advances magnetic nanomaterials and hybrid sorbents as process-compatible platforms for rapid separation and preconcentration of f-block elements. By engineering functionalized magnetic nanoparticles and nanocomposites, my work enables facile solid–liquid separation and enhanced kinetics, bridging fundamental nanochemistry with practical deployment in nuclear fuel cycle operations.

In parallel, I have made sustained contributions to polymer–extractant composite technologies for uranium and plutonium recovery. By encapsulating industrially relevant extractants (e.g., TBP, DEHPA, tri-isoamyl phosphate) within robust polymer matrices, my studies demonstrate improved selectivity, reusability, and resistance to third-phase formation, offering realistic alternatives to conventional solvent extraction processes.

Beyond waste treatment, my recent work extends to uranium recovery from unconventional resources, including seawater and dilute acidic feeds, using functionalized carbon-based materials—linking nuclear chemistry with sustainable energy concepts. Complementary studies on corrosion, contamination, and radionuclide–material interactions in nuclear processing environments further strengthen the systems-level relevance of my research.

Moreover, my work is associated with a coherent, mechanism-driven approach to materials design that connects molecular-scale interactions to process-oriented solutions, with the overarching goal of enabling safer, more efficient, and sustainable nuclear technologies.


Selected Publications (Representative)

2025

2024

2023 and Earlier

A complete publication list is available upon request.

Conference & Technical Contributions

Scientific Positioning

My research aims to bridge fundamental chemistry with deployable nuclear technologies, addressing long-standing challenges in:

The long-term vision is to enable safer nuclear waste management, sustainable uranium sourcing, and next-generation separation materials.

List of Publication

1. Patra, K.; Solanki, C.; Pal, H.; Sengupta, A.; Mittal, V.; Kelkar, A.; Sathe, D. B.; Kumar, A.; Selvakumar, J.; Pillai, S. Seawater to Sustainable Energy Solutions: Leveraging Functionalized Carbon-Based Materials for Uranium Extraction. ACS Appl. Eng. Mater. 2025, Manuscript ID: em-2025-00641j.R2. (Accepted) 

2. Patra, K.; Sengupta, A.; Mittal, V. K.; Sahu, A. K. Achieving Highly Efficient Facile Remediation of Radioactive f-Block Metal Ions by Magnetic Nanostructures Adsorbent. RSC Sustain. Manuscript ID: SU-ART-06-2024-000321. (Submitted)

3. Patra, K., Guchhait, S. R., Sengupta, A., Kumar Singha Deb, A., Ali, S. M., Pathak, N., … Bhatt, R. B. (2025). Task specific thiol functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (SH-MWCNT) for the sorption of tri, tetra and hexa valent actinides from acidic feed. Separation Science and Technology, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/01496395.2025.2587651.

4. Patra, K.; Mollick, S.; Pal, H.; Sengupta, A.; Saha, R.; Dey, S.; Selvakumar, J. Highlighting the Advancement of Nuclear Waste Water Treatment with Modular Porous Scaffolds. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2025, 17 (45), 61571–61603. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5c11540

5. Dubey, S. K.; Pal, S.; Biswas, B.; Chatterjee, A.; Patra, K.; Mondal, R.; Patra, A. S.; Majee, M. C.; Samanta, S.; Roy, P.; Bhattacharjee, S.; Saha, R. Solvothermal Synthesis of a Fe14 Cluster with Electrocatalytic HER Activity under Heterogeneous Condition. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 2025, 136, 40–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2025.05.039

6. Patra, K.; Dey, S.; Solanki, C.; Sengupta, A.; Mittal, V. K. Harnessing Advanced Porous Materials, Covalent Organic Frameworks, and Porous Organic Polymers as Next-Generation Porous Frameworks for Targeted Removal of Emerging Water Contaminants. ACS Appl. Eng. Mater. 2025, 3 (5), 1130–1165. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaenm.5c00187

7. Patra, K.; Sengupta, A.; Pal, H. Emerging Functional Porous Materials for Remediation of Oxo-Pollutants: Unlocking Two Decades of Achievements. ACS Appl. Eng. Mater. 2025, 3 (4), 771–797. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaenm.5c00010

8. Guchhait, S. R.; Banerjee, P.; Karak, A.; Patra, K.; Singh, G.; Sengupta, A.; Yadav, K. K. Achieving Selective U(VI) and Pu(VI) Extraction from Acidic Waste: Robust Polyethersulfone Composite Beads with Tailored Ligands. Sep. Sci. Technol. 2025, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/01496395.2025.2486249

9. Guchhait, S. R.; Patra, K.; Karak, A.; Sengupta, A.; Sathe, D. B.; Bhatt, R. B.; Yadav, K. K. Sustainable Plutonium Separation: Development and Evaluation of Polyethersulfone–Tri-isoamyl Phosphate Composite Beads. Sep. Sci. Technol. 2025, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01496395.2025.2478428

10. Guchhait, S. R.; Patra, K.; Banerjee, P.; Sengupta, A.; Sathe, D. B.; Bhatt, R. B.; Singh, D. K. Targeted Uranium Recovery: Leveraging Tri-isoamyl Phosphate Encapsulated Polyethersulfone Composite Beads for Efficient Recovery from Acidic Solutions. Sep. Sci. Technol. 2025, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01496395.2025.2476166

11. Majee, M. C.; Patra, K.; Gupta, K.; Saha, R. Finding the Correlation between Electrical Conductivity and Dimension of Metal–Organic Frameworks. CrystEngComm 2025, 27, 3877–3886.DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/D5CE00309A

12. Patra, K.; Mollick, S.; Sengupta, A.; Guchhait, S. R. Unlocking a Radioactive Pertechnetate (TcO4−) Treatment Process with Functionalized Metal–Organic Frameworks (MOFs). Nanoscale Adv. 2025, 7, 984–1008. https://doi.org/10.1039/D4NA00779D

13. Patra, K.; Pal, H. Lanthanide-Based Metal–Organic Frameworks (Ln-MOFs): Synthesis, Properties and Applications. RSC Sustain. 2025, 3, 629–660. https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SU00271G

14. Patra, K.; Pal, H. Recent Advances in Porous Organic Polymers (POPs): The Emerging Sorbent Materials with Promises towards Toxic and Radionuclides Metal Ions Separations. Mater. Today Sustain. 2024, 27, 100799. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtsust.2024.100799

15. Guchhait, S. R.; Banerjee, P.; Karak, A.; Patra, K.; Wagh, P. J.; Kesarkar, M. A.; Sarathi, P.; Valsala, T. P.; Sathe, D. B.; Bhatt, R. B.; Singh, D. K. Selective Recovery of U(VI) over Am(III) Employing Polyethersulfone–Tri-isoamyl Phosphate Composite Beads from Aqueous Acidic Feed. Presented at DAE-BRNS SESTEC 2024, July 10–13, 2024.

16. Patra, K.; Sengupta, A. Recent Advances in Functionalized Porous Adsorbents for Radioactive Waste Water Decontamination: Current Status, Research Gap and Future Outlook. Mater. Today Sustain. 2024, 25, 100703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtsust.2024.100703

17. Patra, K.; Mittal, V. K.; Bera, S.; Sengupta, A.; Sahu, A. K.; Valsala, T. P.; Sathe, D. B.; Bhatt, R. B. Role of Mg²⁺ and K⁺ Ions in Retention of Radio-Cesium (¹³⁷Cs⁺) in Vermiculite Clay. J. Hazard. Mater. Adv. 2024, 13, 100411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hazadv.2024.100411

18. Patra, K.; Mittal, V. K.; Valsala, T. P.; Bera, S.; Sahu, A. K.; Sathe, D. B.; Bhatt, R. B. Corrosion and Contamination Study of Nuclear Plant Steel in HNO₃‑Based Waste Solution with Strontium under Nuclear Processing Environment. J. Hazard. Mater. Adv. 2024, 13, 100399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hazadv.2023.100399

19. Patra, K.; Sengupta, A.; Mittal, V. K.; Valsala, T. P. Emerging Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles: From Synthesis to Nuclear Fuel Cycle Application: Where Do We Stand after Two Decades? Mater. Today Sustain. 2023, 24, 100489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtsust.2023.100489

20. Guchhait, S. R.; Patra, K.; Yadav, K. K.; Singh, D. K.; Sengupta, A.; Valsala, T. P.; … Bhatt, R. Study of Plutonium Recovery from Acidic Feed Using Polyethersulfone Encapsulating TBP, DEHPA, and Mixture of TBP and DEHPA Beads. Sep. Sci. Technol. 2023, 58 (15–16), 2846–2855. https://doi.org/10.1080/01496395.2023.2266562

21. Patra, K.; Mittal, V. K.; Valsala, T. P.; Sengupta, A.; Sahu, A. K.; Sathe, D. B.; Bhatt, R. B. Highly Efficient and Selective ⁹⁹TcO₄⁻ Uptake from Reprocessing Low-Level Liquid Waste Using a Zirconium-Based Metal−Organic Framework. Sep. Sci. Technol. 2023, 58 (15–16), 2837–2845. https://doi.org/10.1080/01496395.2023.2260949

22. Patra, K.; Mittal, V. K.; Valsala, T. P.; Sathe, D. B.; Bhatt, R. B.; Sahu, A. K. Elucidating the Corrosion Effect of Strontium on Plant Structural Material; Bhabha Atomic Research Centre: Mumbai, India, 2023; p 141. IAEA 2023.

23. Patra, K.; Sengupta, A.; Mittal, V. K.; Bera, S.; Sahu, A. K.; Valsala, T. P. Understanding the Mechanism of Cs Accumulation on Stainless Steel Suspended in Nuclear High‑Level Liquid Waste. ACS Omega 2022, 7 (38), 34190–34199. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.2c03535

24. Patra, K.; Sengupta, A.; Mishra, R. K.; et al. Assessing the Feasibility Study of Highly Efficient and Selective Co-Sequestration Process for Cesium and Strontium Utilizing Calix-Crown and Crown-Ether Based Combined Solvent Systems. J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem. 2022, 331, 1473–1481. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-022-08209-0

25. Patra, K.; Mittal, V. K.; Valsala, T. P.; Sathe, D. B.; Bhatt, R. B.; Sengupta, A. Engineered Magnetic Nickel Ferrite Nanoparticles for Ultra Enhanced f‑Block Metal Ions Preconcentration; Bhabha Atomic Research Centre: Mumbai, India, 2022; p 116. IAEA 2022.

26. Patra, K.; Sengupta, A.; Boda, A.; Ali, M.; Mittal, V. K.; Valsala, T. P.; Kaushik, C. P. Mechanism Unravelling for Highly Efficient and Selective 99TcO₄⁻ Sequestration Utilizing Crown Ether Based Solvent System from Nuclear Liquid Waste: Experimental and Computational Investigations. RSC Adv. 2022, 12, 3216–3226. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1RA07738D

Contact

Kankan Patra
Scientific Officer
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)
Department of Atomic Energy, India

kpatra@barc.gov.in; kankan.patra2010@gmail.com