Laboratory of Synthetic Inorganic and Materials Chemistry
Research & Interests
Endowed with the rich chemistry of main group elements, our group has leveraged the utility of phosphorus-, silicon- and boron-containing compounds in supramolecular and materials chemistry. Notably, we delve into synthesizing and characterizing organic, hybrid organic-inorganic, and metal-organic compounds with ferroelectric, piezoelectric, and pyroelectric properties. Compounds with such rich electrical properties are subsequently explored for advancements in energy and electronic applications, ranging from nanogenerators to ferroelectric field-effect transistors (FE-FETs). We have also been interested in polyhedral cages and host-guest chemistry where we expand the frontiers of molecular architectures using engineered Pd(II) based cages supported by tris(imido)phosphate trianions and unlock their potential in selective recognition behaviour and chiral separations.
Organic, hybrid organic-inorganic and metal-organic ferro, piezo and pyroelectric materials and their energy and electronic applications
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Currently, ferroelectric behaviour in organic and hybrid organic-inorganic materials are widely examined due to their simple synthesis, solvent processability, flexibility, lightness, non-toxicity and amenability to low-temperature fabrication techniques.In the first approach, we were interested in the design of a family of non-centrosymmetric charge-separated metal-ligand assemblies by utilizing lower-symmetric pyridyl functionalized phosphorus-nitrogen scaffolds.In another approach, we are interested in the salts of phosphonium and ammonium cations for halo, oxo and halogenometallate derived anions as simple ferroelectric materials and use them for the fabrication of mechanical energy harvesters. Currently, we are interested in the utility of these materials in electronic applications.
Representative Publications:
Polyhedral Pd(II) based cages supported by tris(imido)phosphate trianions and their applications in host-guest chemistry and chiral separations
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Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2024, e202400366
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Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e202214984
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Mater. Horiz. 2023, 10, 3153-3161
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Adv. Funct. Mater. 2022, 32, 2109492
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Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 10368-10373
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Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 9054-9058
In an effort to obtain the transition metal complexes of these polyimido anions, our group has developed novel protocols which utilize salts of certain soft metal ions as weak bases towards their deprotonation. During these reactions, a facile route to access the tris(imido)phosphate trianons, in polar and protic medium was developed by employing the corresponding alkyl-phosphoric triamides in reaction with Pd(OAc)2. These imido anions were stabilized as tri- or hexanuclear Pd(II) complexes, in which the trianion was coordinated to the trinuclear Pd(II) centre in a cisoidal fashion. These Pd-imido complexes can further react with a wide-angle chelating ligand such as oxalic acid giving rise to an interesting charge neutral tetrahedral cage of formula {[Pd3(X)]4(C2O4)6}, where X = tris(imido)phosphate trianion. By employing various linkers we were able to obtain a family of neutral cages in tetrahedral, cubic, trigonal bipyramidal topologies and with larger sizes and intrinsic voids. Remarkably, by utilizing chiral imido-trianions we were able to prepare chiral tetrahedral cages which show the enantiomeric separation of small racemic guest molecules.
Representative Publications:
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Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2024, e202406358
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Inorg. Chem. 2023, 62, 4035-4042
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Inorg. Chem. 2023, 62, 1855-1863
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Chem. Rec. 2022, 22, e202100281
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Chem. Eur. J. 2021, 27, 10012–10015
Funding Sources:
