The research in our group is highly interdisciplinary, spanning the areas of Photoscience, Nano-science, Materials Chemistry, Supramoelcuar chemistry and molecular recognition (chemical and biological). The research themes mentioned below are interdependent.
The first research Program involves the design and synthesis of chiral nano capsules. These nano reactors will be used to encapsulate molecules, and to perform reactions in a very selective manner with the help of external stimuli. The cornerstone of this program involves synthetic effort that allows a freedom of design, producing new structural motifs for not only studying stereoselective reactions but also for chemical and bio-molecular recognition of encapsulated guests. Further using these nano reactors, we investigate the molecular and macromolecular assembly characteristics of these systems, trying to gain a deeper understanding of the interplay between molecular structure, assembly, and the role of external interactions that are critical for molecular recognition events.
One challenge in host-guest chemistry is to make well-defined chiral organic materials through self-assembly. The second theme in our research program is aimed at making chiral self-assembling systems from organic materials that possess chiral nano cavities. The chiral nano cavities provided by these organic materials would be used to confine guest molecules to carry out stereoselective chemical transformations and for molecular recognition.
The third research theme is to make use of light as a reagent to study molecular recognition events (chemical and bio-molecular recognition). We use modern molecular tools and spectroscopic techniques to gain deeper understanding of molecular interactions in chemical and biological systems, using light as both a reagent that initiates the chemistry and as the product of excited state reactivity of organic molecules.