Research Projects

Catalytic transformation refers to a chemical reaction using catalysts to minimize activation energy and increase yields and selectivity. Innovative catalysts, particularly metal complexes, have been developed to activate various chemical bonds, such as C-C and C-H bonds, providing new procedures with excellent atom economy for the synthesis of essential products. The active catalyst makes it easy to manufacture organic molecules with biological activities for drug development. Water splitting, a catalytic process, can be improved by using photocatalysts directly suspended in water instead of photovoltaic or electrolytic systems. There is an urgent need to create cost-effective, easy-processable catalysts that can split water and produce hydrogen as a renewable energy source. Coordinating polymer gel (CPG) materials have made a significant impact in the field of soft materials due to their wide range of potential applications in various scientific domains. Supramolecular scaffolds have many real-world applications, including biomedical and heterogeneous catalysis. Imparting metal centers to gelator molecules may allow CPGs to function as unique supramolecular catalysts in organic transformations. The exploration of these soft materials in heterogeneous catalysis is still in its nascent stage, but their easy synthesis technique and bulk scalability keep them ahead compared to other catalysts. This project aims to build next-generation heterogeneous catalysts that can participate in organic transformations and active electro/photocatalytic energy conversions. The main proposal focuses on developing new soft material-based catalysts that significantly impact active catalysis with a smart approach.