Rajesh Sardar PhD, MSc

Dr. Rajesh Sardar joined the faculty at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in July 2010. In August 2016, he was promoted to Associate Professor.

Dr. Sardar began his career in chemistry at Calcutta University (Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur) and the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) obtaining B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in chemistry, respectively. In 2001 he arrived the United States to pursue a Ph.D. at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, on polymer-based metal nanocrystal synthesis and characterization of their optical properties. His research experience expanded to controlling the colloidal assembly of nanocrystals during his faculty internship with Professor Jennifer Shumaker-Parry at the University of Utah. He then moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a post-doctoral fellow to work with Professor Royce Murray on electrochemical charge storage properties of metal nanocrystals.

Using his multidisciplinary research expertise, at IUPUI Dr. Sardar is studying the role of nanoscale structural parameters and surface ligand chemistry in the design of solid-state nanoplasmonic sensors and in the synthesis and assembly of a variety of nanocrystals. In particular, his group is investigating how surface ligand chemistry controls the formation of hierarchical structures of metal chalcogenide and perovskite nanocrystals, their optoelectronic and electrochemical properties, and how they can become ordered superstructures for renewable solar energy generation.