Research Interests
Inorganic Chemistry
Organometallic Chemistry
Summary: Our research efforts cover several important areas such as (i) homogeneous catalysis, (ii) the chemistry of small gaseous molecules including ethylene and carbon monoxide, (iii) luminescent materials, (iv) reactive intermediates, and (vi) the study of metal-metal and metal-ligand bonding. Highly fluorinated ligands and anions are used widely to achieve our goals.
We employ a variety of modern synthetic and analytical techniques including Schlenk and glove box methods, single and powder X-ray crystallography, IR-Raman spectroscopy, multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, GC/HPLC, and electrochemistry. Computational methods are also used routinely in our work. Most of our research projects are interdisciplinary in nature. We also collaborate closely with several research groups in the USA and around the world. Following account highlights ongoing work and areas of current interest.
Catalysis: We are interested in developing metal mediated and environmentally friendly processes for the selective functionalization of inert C-H and C-halogen bonds, alkenes, and alkynes. The main focus is on the carbene, nitrene, and oxo transfer processes and cycloadditions. We prepare catalysts suitable for these applications using late d-block metal ions and novel supporting ligands with diverse steric and electronic properties. Recent work includes very efficient silver and zinc catalyzed routes to functionalize C-H bonds in simple hydrocarbons and C-Cl bonds in halogenated reagents. We are also developing disinfectants and water purification technology based on chemical oxidation.
Chemistry of light gases: Gaseous molecules such as ethylene and carbon monoxide figure prominently in many industrial, catalytic and biochemical processes. We are interested in the fundamental chemistry of, and new technology for such processes including sustainable routes to olefin/paraffin separation, catalytic reactions involving these gases as substrates, and controlling the effects of ethylene in plants and plant products.
Light emitting materials: Some of the metal-organic molecules we have developed emit bright light of various colors (spanning blue to red) upon excitation and have ideal properties for LED and small molecule sensing applications. Development of sensors based on this chemistry to detect volatile organic compounds is an area of current activity. We are also working on the synthesis of fluorescent imaging agents that can selectively “stain” cells and cell components.
Reactive and labile molecules: We are interested in the structures and properties of reaction intermediates of metal mediated processes, rare and labile molecules, and metal-ligand and metal-metal bonding. Reactive and/or labile organometallic species involving small carbon based ligands like CO, ethylene, and acetylene on metals are of particular interest because they are found in a large number of chemical processes. Highly fluorinated ligands and anions are used frequently in our work to stabilize “bottle-able” models of such species, including silver-ethylene, silver-acetylene, gold-ethylene, gold-carbon monoxide, and gold-tris(ethylene) complexes.
