Designing Materials & Sustainable Processes for Circularity of Critical Resources (07/01/26)”
Speaker and Affliation:
Dr. Sohini Bhattacharyya
Research Scientist, Department of Materials Science & Nanoengineering, Rice University, Texas, USA.
When?
7th January, 2026 (Wednesday), 3.00 PM (India Standard Time)
Where
KPA Auditorium, Dept. of Materials Engineering, IISc, Bangalore
Abstract:
With rapid urbanization and the accelerating clean energy transition, ensuring secure and sustainable access to critical minerals has emerged as a defining challenge of this decade. Critical minerals, e.g., lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite underpin modern energy storage technologies, yet their primary supply chains remain energy-intensive, geopolitically constrained, and environmentally burdensome. In India, where demand for lithium-ion batteries is projected to grow sharply with the net zero goals, developing resource-efficient and environmentally responsible recycling strategies is becoming increasingly urgent. Strengthening domestic capabilities for critical mineral recovery is central to enabling a circular economy and reducing reliance on primary imports. Advancing circular approaches for their recovery is therefore essential for long-term resource security and sustainable development.
My research integrates materials chemistry and process innovation to address these challenges. I will begin by briefly introducing my doctoral work on metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) for environmental remediation, highlighting how structural tunability enables selective species capture. Building on this foundation, my postdoctoral work focuses on developing sustainable recycling strategies for lithium-ion batteries. Specifically, I will discuss my efforts in the hydrometallurgical recycling of commercial grade Lithium-ion batteries to recover critical materials for energy, e.g., Co, Ni and Li. I will present strategies for using green lixiviants such as Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES), mechanistic insights into the leaching process and understanding of environmental impacts. This will be followed by using alternative activation routes including microwave and plasma-assisted treatments, to expedite the critical minerals recovery in green lixiviants. These approaches enable selective metal dissolution under mild conditions while reducing energy input and chemical intensity. By elucidating solvent-solid interactions and integrating process intensification, this work contributes to the development of scalable and environmentally benign recycling routes aligned with India’s emerging critical minerals and battery manufacturing ecosystem.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Sohini Bhattacharyya is a Research Scientist with Prof. P. M. Ajayan in the Department of Materials Science and Nanoengineering, Rice University, Texas, USA. She received her Integrated MS and PhD Degree in Materials Science from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore India (Supervisor: Prof. Tapas K. Maji) after completing her bachelor’s in chemistry from Presidency College, Kolkata. After her PhD, she joined Rice University as a Rice Academy Postdoctoral Fellow. Her current research focuses on developing integrated sustainable processes for Lithium-ion battery recycling. She is the recipient of Outstanding Postdoctoral Research Award 2024 and Future Faculty Fellowship 2023 from Rice University, INSPIRE Scholarship and Fellowship from DST, Government of India.