Research Projects

Design and synthesis of well defined transition metal complexes of some chosen redox noninnocent ligands constitute the first aim of the project. Some representative examples are collected in the section of methodology and work plan. The metals chosen for this study will particularly include the cheap and earth abundant first row transition metals such as Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn etc. In some cases a few noble metals will also be used for a comparative study. After successful synthesis and isolation, the newly synthesized transition metal complexes will be thoroughly characterized using various available spectroscopic tools including X-ray single crystal analysis, HRMS, EPR, variable temperature magnetic susceptibility measurements etc. Efforts will be given to understand the redox properties of the newly synthesized complexes as well as in-depth theoretical studies will be carried out to unveil the correct electronic structures. At the final stage the newly synthesized complexes will be used to explore homogeneous catalysis with an aim to achieve various important chemical transformations which are otherwise known to occur only in presence of precious noble metal catalysts. Efforts will be given to achieve the catalytic reactions under mild conditions using the cooperative participation of both ligand and metal centered redox events avoiding the energetically demanding metal centered redox states. Attempts will be also made to achieve radical type reactivity using the metal stabilized organic radicals (redox-active ligands). A few representative examples of various catalytic reactions that are planned to used explored are collected in the section of methodology and work plan. DFT studies along with other control experiments will be carried out to understand the plausible mechanistic pathways of the catalytic reactions for further modification of the catalysts.