Research Projects

Stimuli-responsive material research is a field that combines chemical, physical, and biological sciences, with applications in various fields such as optoelectronics, biology, smart displays, forensic sciences, defense, and environmental monitoring. Inorganic stimuli-responsive materials are robust and better explored, but organic materials offer low cost and low toxicity. Organic polymeric, hydrogel, and micellar-based systems have been reported to exhibit stimuli-responsive behavior, but have disadvantages such as tedious synthetic routes, poor stability, and poor design control. Small molecule-based organic crystalline smart materials have attracted attention due to their long-range order and high purity. Organo-sulfonated Anils crystals and co-crystals exhibit reversible and irreversible thermochromism, as well as multi-stimuli-responsive behavior triggered by proton transfer, packing changes, and lattice water. Emission tuning has also been reported in these materials, providing a potential opportunity for the discovery of a new class of multi-stimuli-responsive organic crystalline materials with high thermal and chemical stability. The proposed work aims to develop multi-stimuli-responsive materials based on organo-sulfonated Anils and their molecular salts, develop luminescent organo-sulfonated Anils, investigate their stimuli-responsive behavior, and fabricate devices and sensors. This work has both academic and industrial significance, as the target materials can open new opportunities in the area of multi-stimuli-responsive materials and find utility across various domestic and industrial sectors.