Karthik Chinnathambi

Bio

Karthik Chinnathambi is a senior research engineer and director of the x-ray and electron microscopy facility (XEML) under the Boise State Center for Materials Characterization (BSCMC). Karthik graduated from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) with a Ph.D. in Materials Science. After earning his Ph.D., he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, for two years before joining Boise State in 2010. Karthik is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the BSCMC at Boise State. He also manages his own research program and has published around 50 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious journals such as Nature Materials, Carbon, and Nano Letters.

Education

• Ph.D. (2007), Materials Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
• M.Sc. (2002), Materials Science, CEG, Anna University, Chennai, India
• B.Sc. (2000), Physics, University of Madras, Chennai, India

Publications

Google Scholar

Selected Recent Publications

• S. Johns, L. He, J. Kane, W. Windes, R. Ubic and C.Karthik, “Experimental evidence for “buckle, ruck and tuck” in neutron irradiated graphite”, Carbon 159, 119 (2020).
• S. Johns, T. Poulsen, J. Kane, W. Windes, R. Ubic and C.Karthik, “Formation of carbon nanostructures in nuclear graphite under high-temperature in situ electron irradiation”, Carbon 143, 908 (2019).
• T. Varghese, C. Dun, N. Kempf, M. Saeidi‐Javash, C. Karthik, J.Richardson, C.Hollar, D.Estrada and Y. Zhang, “Flexible Thermoelectric devices of ultrahigh power factor by scalable printing and interface engineering”, Adv. Func. Mater. 30, 1905796 (2020).
• L. Martinez, J.Delgado, C. Saiz, A Cosio, Y Wu, D Villagrán, K.Gandha, C Karthik, I.Nlebedim, S. R. Singamaneni, “Magnetic and electrocatalytic properties of transition metal doped MoS₂ nanocrystals”, J. Appl. Phys.124, 153903 (2018).
• S. Johns, W. Shin, J. Kane, W. Windes, R. Ubic, C. Karthik, “A new oxidation based technique for artifact free TEM specimen preparation of nuclear graphite”, J. Nucl. Mater.505, 62 (2018)
• C. Karthik, J. J. Kane, W. E. Windes, D. P. Butt, R. Ubic,  “Neutron irradiation induced microstructural changes in NBG-18 and IG-110 nuclear graphites”, Carbon86, 124 (2015).
• N. Kempf, C.Karthik, B.Jaques, J.Gigax, L.Shao, D. P. Butt, R.He, D.Wang, Z. Ren, Y. Zhang, “Proton irradiation effect on thermoelectric properties of nanostructured n-type half-Heusler Hf_0.25Zr_0.75NiSn_0.99Sb_0.01, Appl. Phys. Lett. 112, 243902 (2018).

Research

• Karthik’s current research involves developing an understanding of irradiation induced microstructural changes in graphite. Graphite will be used in the next-generation very high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (VHTR) as a structural material and moderator due to its superior neutron-moderation properties. Under irradiation, graphite single crystals undergo lattice expansion along the c-axis and shrinkage parallel to the basal planes. Although graphite has been used in nuclear applications since the first critical reactor, there is a lack of complete understanding of the properties owing to the dynamic nature of defect evolution and difficulties associated with neutron irradiation experiments. We use in situ electron irradiation on a TEM in addition to neutron and ion irradiation experiments to study the irradiation induced defect structures under different irradiation conditions to develop a comprehensive understanding of the irradiation induced deformation. This will help the VHTR program develop better graphite-failure models and in turn help the industry develop better grades of nuclear graphites.

Research Funding:

• (PI) Department of Energy, EPSCoR State-National Laboratory partnership program, Irradiation Induced Defect Evolution in Nuclear Graphite, $510,988, 2016-20. In collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory.
• (co-PI) Battelle Energy Alliance, Graphite Irradiation damage Technical assistance, $295,000, 2020-22.
• (co-PI) Department of Energy, NEUP, Quantifying the Dynamic and Static Porosity/Microstructure Characteristics of Irradiated Graphite through Multi-technique Experiments and Mesoscale Modeling, $800,000, 2021-2025. In collaboration North Carolina State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
• (co-PI) Battelle Energy Alliance, Graphite Irradiation damage Technical assistance, $60,000, 2023-24.

Areas of Interest

• Materials chemistry of carbons, complex oxides and chalcogenides
• Materials for thermoelectric, solar-cell and nuclear energy applications
• Advanced Electron Microscopy: Application of TEM techniques to solving materials problems

Teaching

MSE 422/522 Advanced transmission electron microscopy

MSE 423/523 Introduction to X-ray diffraction