Research

Materials Design, Synthesis, Characterizations & Application

Our research focuses on the spectroscopic, microscopic and electrochemical investigations on advanced functional materials for light energy harvesting and its conversion to electrical and chemical energy.
One of the primary goals of our research is to design and develop artificial bio-mimetic photosynthetic systems using synthetic dye aggregates, conducting polymers, quantum dots and/or inorganic-organic halide perovskites on the templates of DNA, proteins and polymers. The light absorption, long distance energy transfer and charge transfer properties of these newly designed materials will be investigated in details using various ultra-fast spectroscopic techniques. Their photoelectronic applications towards the conversion of light energy into electrochemical energy will be explored through the development of photo-electrochemical cells on suitable electrode supports. In this research we stress on advancing our knowledge and understanding on efficient excitation energy transfer (beyond FRET limit), and charge separation mechanisms in solution and at interfaces.
Besides, we also focus on working in the area of molecular bio-physics and biochemistry and addressing several long standing concerns of biological processes using single molecule based fluorescence spectroscopic and microscopic approach.

Our group concentrates mainly on the following aspects:

Building Bio-mimetic Artificial Photosynthetic Systems

Development of artificial photosynthetic systems with enhanced efficiency is one promising approach to produce energy and fuels directly from sunlight and solve current energy demands. Optimal light absorption, highly efficient and rapid excitation-energy transfer, and electron transfer processes are the important steps of natural photosynthesis for the production of biofuels from CO2 and water. The natural light harvesting (LH) complexes in plants, algae and bacteria have evolved into highly organized and complex molecular architectures with protein-bound multiple pigments that absorb and funnel solar energy with high quantum efficiency and fast transfer rates. Although the structure, functions, and dynamics of various natural photosynthetic protein complexes are mostly understood, but the challenges and barriers to build an artificial one from synthetic molecules are yet to overcome. Here, we aim to design artificial photosynthetic systems with appropriate structural constraints that will mimic some of the essential features of natural systems and limit energy dissipation via self-quenching and tailored excitonic properties. The hybrid assemblies of coherently coupled systems are expected to improve the optoelectronic performance of the assemblies and provide a basis for engineering more complex networks of excitonically coupled elements.

Photoelectronic and Photoelectrochemical Applications of Inorganic/Organic Hybrid Materials

There is a high demand for a reliable strategy to build hybrid systems using active and stable materials with controllable structure and morphology for electronic devices. The research proposed here represent a promising approach for increasing the efficiency of hybrid solar cells by increasing the interfacial interactions and controlling nanomorphology between the organic and inorganic materials. Our designed excitonic networks composed of coherently coupled hybrid energy materials can be used to achieve further improvement of the energy conversion efficiency. This part of the research is important because many applications such as, photochemical, photocatalytical and photoelectrochemical applications are based on solid electronic surfaces. It is also important in a sense that the exciton multiplication process using coherently coupled systems is only useful if the low energy excitons generated upon energy transfer process are rapidly dissociated and spatially separated at the interface of the hybrid materials

Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry

Here we focus on working in the area of molecular bio-physics to address several long standing concerns of biological processes such as protein aggregation and membrane rafts. Protein aggregation is one of the major concerns in cell biology. It may lead to the formation of amyloid fibrils through a wide variety of aggregate structures, many of which are directly linked to cause neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. Past studies have suggested that those aggregates which are not even directly associated with amyloid diseases, are inherently toxic to cells. It is important to shed light not only on the protein fibrillar structures but also different intermediate aggregate structures (generated in the fibrillation pathways) and their toxicity. The outcome of such studies could potentially enable us towards finding new materials as therapeutic agents for amyloidogenic diseases by searching for stabilization of proteins and the inhibition of protein aggregation. We are currently investigating the dynamics of amyloid proteins and their aggregation properties in polymer, lipid and (bio)surfactant assemblies. This research involves an understanding of biological functions of the proteins in terms of their molecular structure, dynamics and organization, from single molecules to supramolecular structures.

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