Inorganic and Organometallic Photochemistry Lab

We are a young and highly motivated research group at the School of Chemical Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi. We will be working on cutting-edge research topics in the field of Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry, and Photochemistry. 

One of our core research topics is to develop abundant transition metal based photocatalyst and their application in photocatalysis. Most of the well-known transition metal based photocatalysts are made from rare and expensive 4d6 or 5d6 metals like Ru(II), Os(II), Ir(III). These are extensively used in various fields of photochemistry, for examples, photocatalysis, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), solar energy conversion, bioimaging, photodynamic therapy and so on, due to the presence of long-lived and highly emissive metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) excited states. Our focus is to replace these expensive luminophores with abundant and isoelectronic first-row transition metals like Cr(0), Mn(I), Fe(II) and Co(III).

Our major goal is to design innovative ligands based on N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) and arylisocyanides. Then these ligands will be incorporated with first row transition metals, to prepare new organometallic complexes in the direction that these complexes will be photoactive as mentioned in the previous section. After successful preparation of these complexes, they will be characterized by various analytical methods including NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, IR spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography. Additional characterizations like UV-Vis and luminescence spectroscopy, transient absorption spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, spectro-electrochemistry will also be carried out. Thereafter, these complexes will be used in light induced energy and electron transfer catalysis, and other various applications of photochemistry. 

For additional research topics of our group, please see the "Research" section.