Research Interests 

  

Supramolecular Chemistry

Soft matter and Complex fluids (Liquid Crystals)

Chemical Sensors and Biosensors

Colloids & Interfaces 

Organic electronics (OLEDS and Photovoltaics)

Liquid Crystal nanoscience

  

Major Research Problems

 

 

1. Designing discotic mesogens in the hunt of elusive biaxial nematic phase:

 

Biaxial nematic (Nb) phase is a very special phase of LCs owing to its symmetry which leads to distinct properties and new applications. In considering the molecular design for this phase, one approach is the mixture of rod-like and disc-like mesogens. In this direction, in our laboratory, rod and disc-like mesogens are linked covalently via flexible alkyl spacers. The discotic which have been explored include:

 

•Octahydroxyanthraquinone

•Perylene

•Azobenzenes

•Truxene

 
 
2. Designing discotic mesogens for optoelectronic applications:
 
Organic materials exhibiting semiconductor properties are receiving increasing attention nowadays in the development of electronic devices such as organic light-emitting diodes, field effect transistors and photovoltaics due to their easy fabrication, mechanical flexibility and low cost. In this direction, discotic liquid crystalline (DLC) materials are highly tempting as these are much easier to fabricate than single crystals and polymers and the molecular order is much higher than that of isotropic materials. For all these applications, room temperature LC materials are required as these derivatives are potentially viable for processing. A summary of some highlights of the research work in this direction follows:
 
•Introduction of branched chains to electron deficient anthraquinone and perylene cores.
 
•Discotic systems based on alkoxy (tri- & di-) substituted highly conducting hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene.
 
•Revealing mesomorphism in a relatively lesser explored field of Anthracene based discotics.
 
•Blue light-emitting materials based on Multialkynylbenzene-bridged triphenylene dyads.
 
 
3. Nano-channels for efficient Proton Conduction:
 

LCs because of their ordered nano-structures are good candidates to induce anisotropic and efficient conduction. So, the ultimate goal of our research is the synthesis of new LCs and covalent organic frameworks having a balance between required supra-molecular organization of proton-conducting groups and flexibility for molecular reorientation. These systems will provide a viable platform for developing efficient proton transporting materials.

 

 

4. Designing Bent-core LCs for ferroelectric:

Bent-shaped molecules are not only forming the LC self-assembly but also promising candidates to obtain spontaneous polarity as well as macroscopic chirality in achiral molecules. So, if electric field is applied, then it can cooperatively orient the dipoles and increase the correlation length of the polar order in the cybotactic domains and hence ferroelectric-like switching may occur. Our laboratory is interested to make some room temperature bent-core LCs for ferroelectric and other practical applications.

 

 

5. Design and modulation of LC based interfaces for developing LC based stimuli responsive materials:

Enthused by the budding utility of LC materials in biological applications (particularly, reporting biological interactions),  our laboratory focus towards the design of interfaces of LC materials such that desired interactions are realized between the LC materials and biological systems.  A summary of some highlights follows:

•Designing nanostructured thin films of LC-based colloidal gels exhibit the sensitivity and specificity with the added benefits of mechanical robustness and processability and can be used to report adsorption of biological and synthetic amphiphiles at LC interfaces.
 
•Development of new pathway for the easy formation of spontaneous uniform LC droplets that provide a high spatial resolution of micrometers with a very high sensitivity.
 

  

6. LCs at aqueous interfaces for understanding of important biomolecular interactions for bedside diagnostics and laboratory applications. 

 

Biomolecular interactions govern the affinity and specificity of complex formation and determine their biological function which is, therefore, of enormous scientific and practical importance. The pre-requisite to understand biomolecular function in the context of life and metabolism is to analyze the interaction of biomolecule with other biomolecule. Thus, to provide a rational guide to therapeutic design, a promising approach is to study these interactions using LC materials. The important biomolecular interactions studied in our laboratory include:

 

•Proteins endotoxins interactions as it led to divergent effects on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced responses.
 
•pH induced conformation change of cardiolipin (CL) which is known to affect a range of cellular processes
 
•Endotoxin interactions with bacterial cell wall components for clinical understanding associated with Gram negative bacterial infections.
 
•Real-time monitoring of creatinine by changing pH in presence of creatinine deiminase enzyme which is of great importance in the detection of risk for renal failure.
 
 
 
 
7. Design of LC based sensors which hold promise to act as a marker for cells and cell based interactions:
 

Monitoring cell functions and cell-to-cell communication in the cellular environment has enormous implications for cell biology and regenerative medicine.  Unfortunately, probing what cells ‘see’ and how they respond in real time to surrounding signals is still a major challenge. However, it is not yet possible to monitor the interaction of cells with their environments in real time. We are now initiating research on the development of  new principles for the design of LC based sensors that can attach cell surface and provide a gateway for building fundamental in vitro and in vivo studies to the development of effective therapeutics.