Our research focus is on synthetic inorganic and organometallic chemistry with a heavy emphasis on small molecule activation and catalysis. We plan to develop ligand architectures which can support transition metals tailored toward unusual transformations relevant to energy and environment. In this respect, we are very interested in developing the catalyst system comprising cheap, abundant, non-toxic base metals instead of their popular heavier congeners. The group’s endeavour encompasses synthesis, structural and mechanistic understanding (both experimental and computational approach) of the transition metal systems under low-coordinate environment. A majority of our approaches entails ligand backbones that can proffer easy redox shuttle between stable molecules, thus both storing as well as transferring an electron to the substrate molecules. Students will learn a great deal of air-sensitive manipulations and will also be familiar with a wide array of spectroscopic and analytical techniques including X-ray crystallography, cyclic voltammetry, multinuclear NMR, EPR, SQUID, Mӧssbauer spectroscopies. Moreover, the group is also interested in designing photocatalysts utilizing earth-abundant metals. Towards this target, we plan to probe excited-state dynamics of the designed molecules at the ultrafast timescale.

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