DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

Pulak Dutta's research is focused on nanoscale order in soft materials, particularly at surfaces and interfaces. A material is considered 'soft' if its structure and thus its properties are easily changed; interfaces cause molecules to arrange in new ways and thus help build potentially useful new materials. Dutta's research group seeks to understand what structures are formed under what conditions, and why. In particular, they do in-situ X-ray scattering studies on physisorbed (so-called Langmuir) and chemisorbed (so-called self-assembled) molecular monolayers and multilayers, and on interfacial liquids. Much of this research is done using synchrotron radiation at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, and at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Awards and Honors

• Fellow, American Physical Society
• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science

Selected Publications

• “Direct Observations of Ion Densities at Functionalized Interfaces to Test Hypotheses Regarding the Origin of Specific Ion Effects”, Yanlin Li, Honghu Zhang and Pulak Dutta, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 17, 383 (2026)
• “Modifying Specific Ion Effects: Studies of Monovalent Ion Interactions with Amines”, Yanlin Li, Sangjun Yoo, Wei Bu, Honghu Zhang, and Pulak Dutta, J. Phys. Chem. B 128, 6542 (2024)
• “Relationship of interface structure to the dynamics of selective lanthanide extraction”, Sangjun Yoo, Yanlin Li, Travis Douglas, Wei Bu, Pulak Dutta, Coll. Surf. A 694, 134236 (2024)
• “Ionic Liquid Solutions Show Anomalous Crowding Behavior at an Electrode Surface”,  Travis Douglas, Sangjun Yoo, and Pulak Dutta, Langmuir 38, 6322 (2022)
• “Specific Ion Effects in Lanthanide–Amphiphile Structures at the Air–Water Interface and Their Implications for Selective Separation”, Sangjun Yoo, Baofu Qiao, Travis Douglas, Wei Bu, Monica Olvera de la Cruz, and Pulak Dutta, ACS Applied Mater. Interfaces, 14, 7504 (2022)
• “Interfacial density profiles of polar and nonpolar liquids at hydrophobic surfaces”, Miaoqi Chu, Mitchell Miller and Pulak Dutta, Langmuir 36, 906 (2020)
• “Electrostatic origin of element selectivity during rare earth adsorption”, Mitchell Miller, Honghao Li, Miaoqi Chu, Sangjun Yoo, Wei Bu, Monica Olvera de la Cruz and Pulak Dutta, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 058001 (2019)
• “Ultraslow Dynamics at a Charged Silicon-Ionic Liquid Interface Revealed by X-ray Reflectivity”, Miaoqi Chu, Mitchell Miller, Travis Douglas and Pulak Dutta, J. Phys. Chem. C 121, 3841 (2017)
• “Atomic Number Dependent "Structural Transitions" in Ordered Lanthanide Monolayers: Role of the Hydration Shell”, Mitchell Miller, Miaoqi Chu, Binhua Lin, Wei Bu and Pulak Dutta, Langmuir 33, 1412 (2017)
• Crowding and anomalous capacitance at an electrode-ionic liquid interface observed using operando X-ray scattering”, Miaoqi Chu, Mitchell Miller and Pulak Dutta, ACS Central Science 2, 175 (2016)
• Observation of Ordered Structures in Counterion Layers Near Wet Charged Surfaces---a Potential Mechanism for Charge Inversion”, Mitchell Miller, Miaoqi Chu, Binhua Lin, Mati Meron and Pulak Dutta,  Langmuir 32, 73 (2016)