Research in our group is highly interdisciplinary, spanning the areas of Photoscience, Nano-science, Materials Chemistry, Supramolecular chemistry and molecular recognition (chemical and biological). We use of light to initiate chemical reactions and control photoreactivity in the excited state using molecular design and confinement. The cornerstone of the research program involves synthetic effort that allows a freedom of design to produce new structural motifs for investigating atropselective reaction, enantioselective photocatalysis and programmed degradation of polymers derived from biomass. Our group is also interested in chemical and bio-molecular recognition of encapsulated guests within water-soluble nano-reaction vessels leading to enzyme mimetic photocatalysis. The research program also investigates the molecular and supramolecular assembly characteristics of systems to gain a deeper understanding of the interplay between molecular structure, assembly, dynamics and the role of external interactions critical for molecular recognition events in light initiated reactions. In addition to synthetic protocols that are routinely employed, our group uses modern molecular tools and spectroscopic techniques to gain deeper understanding of molecular interactions thus making use of light both a reagent that initiates the chemistry and as the product of excited state reactivity. Currently the group is working on four main themes:
1) Atropselective photo reactions
2) Organophotocatalysis
3) Supramolecular photocatalysis
4) Biomass based sustainable materials