RESEARCH INTERESTS

 My research interests bridge traditional disciplines covering several aspects of synthetic inorganic, materials and polymer chemistry. Research in my group is inherently interdisciplinary in nature and accommodates students with interests in all areas of chemistry. The research provides a broad training in small molecule, polymer, and materials synthesis and characterization techniques and prepares students for work in either industry or academia. A very concise description of my research program is outlined bellow:

1. New Strategies to Nanosized Functional Materials

Most nanosynthetic studies in our group are inspired by our hypothesis that stabilization of highly active metal nanoparticles can be achieved by the “meatball-spaghetti” analogy. In this model, preparation of functional metallic nanoparticles is viewed as the preparation of “meatball-spaghetti” dish. This analogy is based on our hypothesis that the aggregation of the meatballs (metal nanoclusters) can be prevented if enough spaghetti (flexible polymeric structures) is present to physically wrap the meatballs during the formation process. Due to very weak surface passivation imparted by stabilizing agent, such type of nanoclusters are expected to show superior activity and selectivity as reactive intermediates (or catalysts) over the nanoparticles passivated by strong coordinating ligands.

The most important and fundamental difference of this strategy from other polymer-stabilized systems is that, in this hypothesis the polymer does not contain the coordinating ligands, which can strongly passivate the nanoclusters. Moreover, the substituents of the polymer are used to induce the reduction of metal salts avoiding utilization of any external reducing agent.

2. Catalysis and Transition metal-heteroatom Chemistry

Our interests in this area cover all aspects of selective catalysis, and especially in the design, discovery and study of systems that mediate fundamentally interesting and useful reactions. Our research in this area is driven by the need to discover catalytic systems, which combine the advantages of both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. This research has led us to “soluble” analogues of heterogeneous catalysts in the form of active metal nanoclusters.

3. Polymer and Material Chemistry of Silicon

Our research in this area targets novel materials with specific structural, electronic, optical and/or catalytic properties. The synthetic strategy to build these materials involves low temperature, chemically directed catalytic transformations. Research in this area can be divided in following major categories:

(i) Synthesis and Study of New “Si” Based Functional Polymers

We are heavily involved with the synthesis, property profile study, and application of new silicon based hybrid inorganic/organic polymers. At present our efforts are focused on the new class of functional polysiloxane/polycarbosilane polymers. Our goal is to achieve the polymers having various types of substituents on the backbone Si-atoms in one to two step synthetic routes.

(ii) Vehicles for Controlled and Targeted Drug Delivery

Our group in this area targets to develop new materials which can provide control over the drug delivery in cases where, traditional oral or injectable drug formulations cannot be used. As an example, we are trying to devise drug conjugates which may address situations requiring the slow release of water-soluble drugs, the fast release of low-solubility drugs etc. We are also trying to generate new nanoparticulate systems, based on carriers that can dissolve or degrade and be readily eliminated. Long term goal of this research is to synthesize drug conjugates , which are inert, biocompatible, mechanically strong, and safe from accidental release.