Research Projects

The catalytic transformations of organic compounds hold enormous potential both in academics as well as industrial applications. Significant research efforts have been undertaken to improve the efficiency, selectivity and robustness of existing catalytic reactions. In recent years, the successful implementation of halogen bond (XB) and chalcogen bond (CB) interactions in catalytic processes has driven the scientific community to investigate and unravel the potency and scope of these interactions. In this regard, the halogen and chalcogen atoms serve as efficient Lewis acid to interact with a Lewis base. Although, their properties are similar to hydrogen bond, still they have certain advantages over hydrogen bond viz directionality of interaction, strength and tunability. In continuation with the current trend on development and application of new synthetic methods utilizing the Lewis acid property of halogen-bond and chalcogen bonds for organic transformation, the designing of a novel halogenated/chalcogenated porphyrin was planned that can further serve as an efficient Lewis acid catalyst for chemical transformations. Porphyrin is an exceptional ligand due to (i) its stability in ground state, photoexcited state, radical cations and anion state, (ii) extensive π-electron systems, (iii) photosensitizing ability, and. A limited literature reports on halogen and chalcogen bond assisted organic reactions exists till date whereas there is no preview on the application of halogenated/chalcogenated porphyrin based organocatalyst. Therefore, the need to explore an efficient porphyrin based organocatalyst to aid a facile catalytic process is highly desirable. Our current efforts are directed towards design & synthesis of novel halogenated and chalcogenated porphyrin with different functionalisation and study their efficacy in organic synthesis and scrutnize the role of halogen bond and chalcogen bond interactions. Our escalating interest is focused on analyzing the effect of various functionalities installed in mono and multi-substituted porphyrins and study of their experimental and theoretical role in halogen bond and chalcogen bond interactions for further application to organic synthesis.