Seminar/ Colloquium

Title : Designing Ligand Molecules to Battery Anode Materials using the Main-group Handle.
Speaker : Dr. Moumita Majumdar, Associate Professor, IISER Pune.
Date : 11/02/2022, 05:30 PM , Online Mode.

Abstract: In the past five years, our group have been interested in the designing of cationic donor ligands that coordinate to transition metals. Such complexes show enormous implications in Lewis-acid catalysis due to the inherent positive charge on the donor site of the ligand. In this direction, we have pioneered the nucleophilic behaviour of Ge(II) diction and Sb(I) monocation. We have also established the case of cooperative interaction between two proximally located Ge(II) cations enabling the elusive organic transformation. The electronic fine-tuning achieved through our ligand design strategy has led to the rare coordination of Sn(II) with Au(I) ion.^[4] We have also been interested in the organometallic approach towards the preparation of anode material for lithium ion battery. We have developed the synthesis of multi-functionalized carbon materials from small molecule through carbonization which exhibited outstanding anode performance in lithium-ion battery. Glimpses of our ongoing efforts will be discussed.

Bibliography: 

[1] R. K. Raut, M. Majumdar*, Chem. Commun. 2017, 53, 1467-1469.

[2] V. Kumar, R. G. Gonnade*, C. B. Yildiz*, M. Majumdar*, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 25522-25529.

[3] M. Majumdar*, R. K. Raut, P. Sahoo and V. Kumar, Chem. Commun.2018, 54, 10839-10842.

[4] P. Chibde^$, R. K. Raut^$, V. Kumar, R. Deb, R. G. Gonnade and M. Majumdar*, Chem. Asian J. 2021, 16, 2118-2125.

[5] S. S. S. Ali, K. Roy, N. Akula, S. B. Ogale and M. Majumdar*, Chem. Commun. 2020, 56, 14805-14808. (Emerging Investigators 2020 themed collection).

Bio-Sketch of the speaker: Dr. Majumdar is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, IISER Pune. She has obtained her PhD from IIT Kanpur in 2010 under the supervision of Prof. Jitendra K. Bera. She had two post-doctoral stints: Osaka University, Japan (Advisor: Prof. Kazushi Mashima) and Saarland University, Germany (Advisor: Prof. Dr. David Scheschkewitz). She had joined as an Assistant Professor at IISER Pune in October 2014 and promoted to Associate Professor in May 2020.  

Professional Recognitions:

Member of the International Advisory Board, Chemistry-An Asian Journal, Wiley-VCH from 2022
Member of Early Career Advisory Board, Chemistry Open, Wiley-VCH
Chem. Comm. Emerging Investigator 2020
​DFG Collaborative Research Grant, 2019-2022.
‘Erasmus+ International Mobility Program’, University of Leipzig, Germany, 2019.