Krishnan Raja, Ph.D., P.E.

• Materials for Extreme Environments (Structural materials for molten salt reactors)
• Nuclear Materials (Degradation of structural materials in nuclear reactors, nuclear fuel claddings, nuclear waste package canisters, spent fuel integrity)
• Electrochemical Engineering (including corrosion, pyroprocessing of used nuclear fuels, molten salt electrolysis, and electrodeposition)
• Recycling of strategic materials
• Energy Conversion and Storage Materials (Batteries, supercapacitors, photocatalysis)
• Remaining Life Assessment of Engineering Components

After completing his doctoral studies, Dr. Raja gained industrial experience working as a senior R&D engineer at Larsen and Toubro Limited in Mumbai, India for four years. He was involved in developing welding and thermal spray consumables for hard-facing (wear-resistance) and corrosion-resistance applications.  Later he moved to Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan where he worked on the environmental degradation of pressure boundary components of nuclear light water reactors for about three years where he wrote his first successful research grant which was funded by EPRI. Dr. Raja came to the USA in January 2001 to work on the long-term corrosion behavior of Alloy 22 as a candidate nuclear waste canister material for the Yucca Mountain Project. He was a research faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno until 2011. Dr. Raja joined the Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) program of the University of Idaho, Moscow campus as a regular faculty in August 2011. After the termination of the MSE program, Dr. Raja joined the NEIM department in 2022 at the Idaho Falls Center.

Dr. Raja’s research interests focus on the environmental degradation of materials, electrochemistry, and materials for energy conversion and storage, with an emphasis on structure-property correlation and nuclear engineering. He is a licensed professional engineer in materials and metallurgical engineering (Idaho State, P16254), and a certified Materials Selection and Design Specialist (#25681) issued by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE), now AMPP. Dr. Raja has more than 150 publications on electrochemistry, environmental degradation, and energy-related materials in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.  His work has been cited more than 4300 times with an h-index of 29. He was a recipient of the DARPA young faculty award in the year 2012.  He has supported and supervised over nine Ph.D. students and more than a dozen M.S. students to their graduation.

1. Tejaswini Vaidya, John P Stanford, Nicolene van Rooyen, Krishnan Raja, Piyush Sabharwall, Vivek Utgikar, Capture of Volatile Organic Iodine Species using Mordenites, Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology, Vol 21, No. 2, June 2023, 205-224 
2. Nikhil Dhabarde, Alyssa Ferrer, Prichard Tembo, Krishnan Raja, Vaidyanathan Ravi Subramanian, “Chalcogenide-Based Complex Transition Metal Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Peroxide Production”  Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 170 (2023) 016506
3. Heinrik Goettsche, Krishnan Raja, Piyush Sabharwall, Vivek Utgikar, Treatment of Off-Gas Emissions: Kinetics of Silver Mordenite Catalyzed Methyl Iodide Decomposition, Chemical Engineering Journal Advances, 10 (2022) 100290
4. Anirban Naskar,  Madhumanti Bhattacharyya,  Krishnan S. Raja, Indrajit Charit, Jens Darsell, Saumyadeep Jana, “Corrosion Behavior of Plastically Deformed AISI 304 Stainless Steel by Friction Stir Welding: Comparison of Crack Repaired and Autogenously Welded Materials”  Corrosion Eng. Sci. Tech. (2022) 57 (7), 599-612 DOI: 10.1080/1478422X.2022.2105682
5. Chaithanya Balumuru, John Stanford, Krishnan Raja, Piyush Sabharwall, and Vivek Utgikar, Investigations into Plasma-Mediated Decomposition of Organoiodide Species as a Pretreatment for Mitigation of Radioiodine Emissions, in press Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., (2022) 61 (1), 269-278 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.1c04049
6. Nikhil Dhabarde, Orlando Carrillo-Ceja, Siyu Tian, Guoping Xiong, Krishnan Raja, Vaidyanathan Ravi Subramanian, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 125 (43) (2021) 23669-23679
7. Madhumanti Bhattacharyya, Thomas Gnaupel-Herold, Krishnan S Raja, Jens Darsell, Saumyadeep Jana, Indrajit Charit, Evaluation of residual stresses in isothermal friction stir welded 304L stainless steel plates, Materials Science and Engineering: A, 826 (2021) 141982
8. B.C. Day, J. Zillinger, V. Utgikar, K. S.Raja, “The Electrochemical Behavior of Tellurium Tetrachloride in LiCl-KCl Eutectic Molten Salt at 450 ºC” J. Electrochemical Society, 168 (2021) 056514
9. Madhumanti Bhattacharyya, Krishnan S. Raja, Indrajit Charit, Jens Darsell, and Saumyadeep Jana, Processing-microstructure-property correlations in isothermally friction stir welded 304L SS plates, Materials Science and Engineering, A. 804 (2021) 140635
10. Anirban Naskar, Madhumanti Bhattacharyya, Krishnan S. Raja, Indrajit Charit, Jens Darsell, and Saumyadeep Jana, Pitting Behavior of Friction Stir Repair Welded 304L Stainless Steel in 3.5% NaCl solution at Room Temperature: Role of Grain and Defect Structures, SN Applied Sciences, 2 (12), (2020) 1-21.
11. J.P. Stanford, N. van Rooyen, T.Vaidya, K.S.Raja, P.Sabharwall, V.Utgikar, “Photodecomposition of Methyl Iodide as Pretreatment for Adsorption of Radioiodine Species in Used Nuclear Fuel Recycling Operations” Chemical Engineering Journal, 400 (2020) 125730
12. O. Charles Nwamba, Elena Echeverria, Qiong Yu, Krishnan S Raja, David N. McIlroy, Jean’ne M. Shreeve, D. Eric Aston “Increased Electron Transfer Kinetics and Thermally Treated Graphite Stability through Improved Tunneling Paths” J. Materials Sci., 55(25), (2020) 11411-11430, doi: 10.1007/s10853-020-04846-6
13. J. Ninlachart, K.S. Raja, “SCC Behavior of Mg-RE Alloys Under External Bias Conditions in Alkaline Chloride Environments”, J. Magnesium and Alloys, 8 (3) (2020) 731-751
14. Lindstrom, Mary Lou; Gakhar, Ruchi; Raja, Krishnan; Chidambaram, Dev, “Facile Synthesis of an Efficient Ni-Fe-Co Based Oxygen Evolution Reaction Electrocatalyst’ J. Electrochemical Society 167 (2020) 046507
15. N. Shrestha, V. Utgikar, K.S. Raja, Mg-RE Alloy Anode Materials for Mg-Air Battery Application, Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 166 (2019) A3139-A3153
16. A. Kundu, N. Shrestha, A. Korjenic K. S. Raja, I. Charit, A study on microstructural evolution and corrosion behavior of spark plasma sintered Fe–Cr alloy system, J. Materials Science, 54 (22), (2019) 14171-14188 doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03861-6
17. J. Ninlachart, K. S. Raja, Anodic coating of Mg-Nd-Gd-Zn-Zr (EV31A) and Mg-Y-Nd-Gd-Zr (WE43C) in saline solution, Journal of Research and Applications in Mechanical Engineering, 7(1) (2019) 83-90
18. Alen Korjenic, Krishnan S Raja, Electrochemical Stability of Fluorine Doped Tin Oxide (FTO) Coating at Different pH Conditions, Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 166(6) (2019) C169-184

Completed Research Projects

• “Innovative Technology for Continuous, Online (in situ) Monitoring of Corrosivity of Molten Salts to Prevent Catastrophic Failure of Solar Thermal Plants” Funded by: DOE-EERE-SIPS-CSP,
• “Cold Spray Coated  Metal  Matrix  Nano-Composite Surface Layers  on INCONEL 617” FY 2021 SBIR/STTR Phase I,
• "Novel Processes for Capture of Radioactive Iodine Species from Vessel Off-Gas Streams" Funded by NEUP-DOE
• "Friction Stir Based Repair Welding of Dry Storage Canisters and Mitigation Strategies: Effect of Engineered Barrier Layer on Environmental Degradation" Funded by NEUP-DOE.
• "Elucidation of Electrochemical Behavior of Technetium, Tellurium, and Iodine in Molten Salt Solutions'', Funded by NEUP-DOE.
• “Optimizing manufacturing of high-value components using Direct Metal Laser Melting techniques under reduced atmospheric conditions for industrial sectors” Funded by IGEM.
• “Boride-based electrode materials with enhanced stability under extreme conditions for MHD direct power extraction” Funded by DOE- University Coal Research Program,
• "Doubling the Life of Concrete Structures" Funded by NEUP-DOE
• "Design and synthesis of ceramic molecular auxetic materials" Funded by the Defense Sciences Office (DSO), DARPA

• DARPA Young Faculty Award, 2012
• University of Idaho Alumni Excellence Award, 2015
• University of Idaho Alumni Excellence Award, 2016
• Key Reader Award, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 2018
• Key Reader Award, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 2019
• Key Reader Award, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 2020
• Key Reader Award, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 2021