Organic and Inorganic Functional Material Design

Molecular Separation- Photocatalysis - Photophysics - Supramolecular Chemistry

Research Theme

Sustainability of synthetic materials is the primary challenge towards realizing practical applications. While designing a functional material, molecular structures and mesoscopic assembly process, both play imperative roles to make it sustainable. We aim to programme the molecular assembly in mesoscale to realize sustainability for targeted applications, including gas separation, selective ion diffusion, photocatalysis and smart optoelectronic materials.

IME_3layer_Si_SiO2_x_section_beam_decell_3kV_004.tif

MOF thin film

Materials: Metal-organic frameworks, Conjugated porous polymers, Photoactive molecules

News & Events

Our work published in Nature Communication is highlighted in Times of India; online link: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/new-research-on-nano-filters-to-scale-down-cost-in-producing-pure-chemicals/articleshow/100753502.cms

Publication update: Our first paper is accepted in Mol. Syst. Des. Eng. (emerging investigator series) In the context of chemical separation, membrane based technologies are the most advanced and sustainable. One of the fundamental aspect of membrane based separation is molecular diffusivity. In this work we have demonstrated that molecular diffusivity in a porous thin film (which can act as a membrane) can be enhanced by atleast a factor of 2, if the nanochannles are aligned in a preferential way. More details can be found in the following link (https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/me/d2me00091a)

Research Grant: We have been awarded Infosys-TIFR leading reserach grant to study efficicincy of epitaxially grown membranes. It is a collaborative proposal with Dr. Jagannath Mondal and Dr. Vipin Agarwal from TIFR Hyderabad To learn more see the twitter thread from @TIFRH_buzz: https://twitter.com/TIFRH_buzz/status/1519255387895398401

Latest Publications

In collaboration with KIT (Germany) and University of Nantes (France), we have designed a MOF thin film of nanographene (hexabenzocoronene) using a layer-by-layer epitaxy approach. This thin film can act as efficient photodetector. To know more: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adfm.202308847

Molecular diffusion follows concentration gradient path. We have discovered that in a porous material, metal-organic framework, molecules can move orthogonal to the gradient. To know more: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37739-8

Nanochannel orientation can impact transport diffusivity by 2 fold, and can improve diffusion selectivity by 7-times To know more: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/me/d2me00091a/unauth