Our research group focuses on the development of new catalysts involving redox active ligands, and design the bio-inspired catalysts.  

A. Biomimetic/Bio-inspired Reactions of First Row Transition Metal Complexes: The oxidative functionalization of unactivated C-H hydrocarbons is one of the important transformations in chemical industry as it heavily depends on hydrocarbons from oil and feed-stocks which requires considerable functionalization before to use. A large numbers of Mn, Fe and Cu-containing metalloenzymes perform such hydrocarbon oxidations under ambient conditions, producing hydroxylated, halogenated, or desaturated hydrocarbons. Therefore,the development of highly reactive high valent species can give interesting oxidative chemistry including reaction mechanism. The main focus of this research to develop bio-mimetic and bio-inspired catalysts for oxidative reactions, and understanding the reaction mechanism by experimental and theoretical studies.

B. Multimetallic (Transition Metals) Complexes for Small Molecule Activation: The chemical industry heavily relies upon small molecules like N2, H2, O2, H2O, CO, CO2 and CH4 which are efficient and reversible source of energy. These molecules are small but fascinating, universal and easily available. The activation of these small molecules has a significant impact in biology, medicine, industry and environment protection. The catalytic multi-electron transformations of such molecules remain a significant challenge to synthetic Chemists. The use of multi-nuclear first row transition metals to transform the strongest bonds of small molecules has become a hallmark of modern Inorganic Chemistry. Inspired by Nature’s ability to perform such intriguing small molecules activation under ambient conditions via cooperative activity, Scientists have sought to make such reactions into accessible tools for the synthetic chemist by taming the transition metals through deliberate ligand design. Therefore, the ligands design is the utmost goal for the development of desired multi-metallic complexes. The objective of this research work is to explore the synthesis of new ligand scaffolds designed to support multi-nuclear transition metal complexes and to study their potential for small molecule activation including reaction mechanisms.

C. Redox Active Ligand in Transition Metal  Complexes and Application as Catalysts: The development of highly efficient and selective catalysts is one of the major interests of research in chemistry. The main aim of this research is to develop highly efficient and selective transition metal catalysts for challenging reactions. These investigations involve the use of redox active ligands to achieve challenging catalytic reactions. Use of redox-active ligands combined with transition-metal ions is a powerful strategy to promote multi-electron catalytic reactions. The ligand is not just a spectator ligand, but actively participates in bond making and bond breaking processes (electron transfer process) in converting substrates to products. This approach enables chemists to impart noble-metal character to less toxic and cost effective 3d transitional metals, such as Fe, Co, Ni and Cu, in multi-electron catalytic reactions.