Senior Research Fellow, University of South Australia
Polymer Science, Nanomaterials
B.Sc (Hons in Chemistry) - University of Calcutta
B.Tech (Polymer Science & Engineering) - University of Calcutta
PhD (Polymer Science & Engineering) - Indian Institute of Technology
Dr. Dutta received his undergraduate degrees in science; BSc (Honours: Chemistry) and engineering; BTech (Polymer Science and Engineering) from University of Calcutta, India and PhD degree (Polymer Science and Engineering) from Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT, Kharagpur) India. Upon successful completion of his PhD, he received a postdoctoral scholarship from ‘Centre Franco-Indien pour La promotion de la Recherché Avances’ and joined Centre de Recherche sur la Physico-Chimie des Surfaces Solides-CRPCSS (presently known as L'Institut de Chimie des Surfaces et Interfaces) C.N.R.S., France to continue postdoctoral research in close collaboration with Prof. J. B Donnet.
The main thrust of Dr. Dutta's research in Monash University as Research Fellow (1994-1997) has been on prediction of long-term viscoelastic behaviour of thermorheologically complex polymers through experiment and modelling.
He joined the Ian Wark Research Institute (IWRI), University of South Australia in 1997 and actively pursued research activities focused on both fundamental and industrial significance; and has established a research portfolio in highly interdisciplinary areas of structured polymer materials with particular emphasis on the role of interface and its control. His research and expertise at the cross-section of polymer science and engineering, biomaterials and material science has been recognized internationally through publications in high impact journals including Chemistry of Materials, Polymer, Macromolecules, Advanced Materials, Langmuir, Biomaterials, J. of Biomedical Materials Research, etc. He has authored over 180 scientific papers, holds 3 patents, is/was involve/d in supervising 15 PhD and 4 honours students at IWRI, UniSA.
Novel Nanostructured Materials for Sustainable Energy Technology: Presently, creation of new electro-chemical energy conversion devices to securing carbon-neutral sources of energy is a major challenge for sustainable development in our society. The specific objective of this research theme is to advance chemical solution to the energy crisis and sustainability through development of key new materials for fuel cells, battery membranes and electrocatalysts with maximum activity, utilization efficiency and stability.
Responsive Biomimetic Polymers and Functional Biomaterial: Stimuli-responsive polymers, biopolymers, their conjugates and hydrogels have emerged as an important class of materials for biology and medicine. Research interest in this area covers a range of functional materials for biological importance including novel peptide segment borrowed from biology, novel biocompatible polymers for tissue engineering, unique bio-compatible elastomers from catalyst-free polymerization of multifunctional non-toxic monomers and inorganic composite for tissue growth.
Nanostructured Functional Hybrids for Multidimensional Applications: The focus of this research theme includes design, fabrication and application of functional hybrids and the understanding of the relationship between physical properties or phenomena and material dimensions. He has made significant contribution in making a new family of organic-inorganic hybrids for gas barrier, controlled transport, anticorrosion, abrasion resistance, high-temperature membrane. He has prepared hybrids of all generations by three independent methods: generation 1- hybrid by sol-gel method, generation 2- hybrid by self assembled filler exfoliation and generation 3-hybrids from covalently bonded oxometallate nanofiller or surface modified metal oxide cluster in polymer. We have demonstrated how precisely the growth of nanoparticle in a polymer matrix could be controlled to achieve specific functionality.
Thin Films and Protective Coatings: His current research in this research theme primarily concentrate on the plasma polymer coatings and various organic-inorganic hybrids for high performance protective coating and thin films.
M.Y. Truong, N. K. Dutta N.R. Choudhury, C.M. Elvin, M. Kim, A.J. Hill "Physical Approaches for Fabrication of Organized Nanostructure of Novel Resilin-mimetic Elastic Protein, Rec1-Resilin" Biomaterials, (In Press, Galley received, June 2009)
2. S. Subianto, M. Mistry, N. Choudhury, N. K. Dutta, R. Knott, "Composite Polymer Electrolyte containing Ionic Liquid and Functionalised Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes for Anhydrous PEM Applications", ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (6) (2009) 1173–1182.
. Mayur K. Mistry, Namita Roy Choudhury, Naba K. Dutta, Robert Knott, Zhiqing Shi, and Steven Holdcroft "Novel Organic-Inorganic Hybrids with Increased Water Retention for Elevated Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Application" Chemistry of Materials, 20 (2008) 6857-6870.
4. Mayavan, N. Roy Choudhury and N. K. Dutta "Pt-Catalyst Nanoparticles from Directed Deposition in Functional Block Copolymer" Advanced Materials, 20 (2008) 1819- 1824.
. Calin Flaviu Ladasiu Ciolacu, Namita Roy Choudhury, Naba K. Dutta, Ed. Kosior, "Molecular Level Stabilization of PET with Nanostructured Open Cage Trisilanol isobutyl POSS" Macromolecules, 40(2007)265-272.