Naba Karan

Assistant Research Professor

Center for Clean Energy Engineering

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Education

• Ph.D, Chemical Physics, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR, USA (2009)
• M.S., Chemical Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India (2003)
• B.S., Chemistry (Honors), University of Calcutta, Calcutta, India (2000)

Research Focus

• Electrochemical energy storage (rechargeable Li/Na-ion batteries, Li-S batteries etc.) – design, synthesis, and in-situ/operando structural characterization of electrode materials, solid state electrochemistry
• Applications of advanced spectroscopic techniques (such as, x-ray absorption, x-ray Raman) – local structural characterization
• Solid electrolytes (glasses/polymer/crystalline) – carrier and structural dynamics; all solid-state batteries
• Multifunctional metal oxide thin films -synthesis, characterization

Awards and Honors

• NSF-IFN (National Science Foundation-Institute of Functional Nanomaterials) scholarship at University of Puerto Rico: August 2007-July 2009.
• DOE-EPSCoR (Department of Energy) scholarship at University of Puerto Rico: August 2006-2007

Publications

Investigation of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formed on Si nanoparticle composite electrodes using hyperpolarized 129Xe NMR spectroscopy, Y. Mao, N. K. Karan, M. Song, R. Hopson, P. R. Guduru and L-Q. Wang, Energy and Fuels, 31, 5622 (2017).

In-situ stress evolution in Li1+xMn2O4 thin films during electrochemical cycling in Li-ion cells, J. Sheth, N. K. Karan, D. P. Abraham, C. C. Nguyen, B. L. Lucht, B. W. Sheldon and P. R. Guduru, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 163, A2524 (2016).

Operando structural characterization of the lithium-substituted layered sodium-ion cathode material P2-Na0.85Li0.17Ni0.21Mn0.64O2 by X-ray absorption spectroscopy, N. K. Karan, M. D. Slater, F. Dogan, D. Kim, C. S. Johnson and M. Balasubramanian, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 161, A1107 (2014).

Synthesis, characterization and structural modeling of high capacity, dual functioning MnO2 electrode/electrocatalysts for Li-O2 batteries, L. Trahey, N. K. Karan, M. K. Y. Chan, J. Lu, Y. Ren,J. Greeley, M. Balasubramanian, A. K. Burrell and M. Thackeray, Advanced Energy Materials, 3, 75 (2013).

Atomically dispersed iron-nitrogen-carbon composite as highly active cathode catalyst in Li-O2 battery application, J. Shui, N. K. Karan, M. Balasubramanian, S. Li and D.-J. Liu, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 134, 16654 (2012).

Bulk sensitive characterization of the discharged products in Li-O2 batteries using non-resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, N. K. Karan, M. Balasubramanian, T. Fister, A. K. Burrell and P. Du, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 116, 18132 (2012).

Structure of lithium peroxide, M. Chan, E. Shirley, N. K. Karan, M. Balasubramanian, Y. Ren, J. Greeley and T. Fister, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2, 2483 (2011).

Enabling sodium batteries using lithium-substituted sodium layered transition metal oxide cathodes, D. Kim, S. H. Kang, M. Slater, S. Rood, J. T. Vaughey, N. K. Karan, M. Balasubramanian and C. S. Johnson, Advanced Energy Materials, 1, 333 (2011).

Effect of plasticizer on structural and electrical properties of nanocomposite solid polymer electrolytes, D. K. Pradhan, B. K. Samantaray, R. N. P. Choudhary, N. K. Karan, R. Thomas and R. S. Katiyar, Ionics, 17, 127 (2011).