IISER MOHALI

Abstract: Global warming and climate change are two severe environmental dangers brought on by the steady rise in the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere. Thus, in order to reduce this problem, it is essential to design efficient materials for high CO2 capture and that can exhibit good catalytic activity for CO2 utilization into fuel and useful chemicals. In this talk I will focus on designing some novel porous organic and organic inorganic hybrid materials using suitable building blocks. Some of the organic porous materials like N-heterocyclic carbene-based porous organic polymers synthesized through the Friedel–Crafts reaction between the imidazolium salt and bi-phenyl showed outstanding stability, high flexibility, and high BET surface area (1298 m2 g–1). It showed a high CO2 uptake capacity of 2.85 mmol g–1 under 1.0 bar pressure at 273 K. High surface area, high CO2 absorption capacity, and N-heterocyclic carbene moiety in the organic network is responsible for its high catalytic activity in the CO2 reduction to methanol via hydrosilylation with complete conversion of silane under atmospheric CO2 pressure. Another interesting porous material conjugated microporous polymer CBZ-CMP containing carbazole building unit is designed and this is used for photocatalytic benzylamine coupling reaction under blue light irradiation. Similarly some organic-inorganic hybrid porous materials like periodic mesoporous organosilica and metal phosphonates have been designed they are explored in adsorptive removal of heavy metal (Hg) from polluted ground water and as heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of valuable polymers using CO2 as a C1 feedstock.

About the Speaker: Prof. Asim Bhaumik received his PhD in Chemistry from National Chemical Laboratory, Pune in 1997. He was JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Tokyo during 1997-1999. Then he was Associate Researcher at Toyota Central R & D Labs Nagoya, Japan during 1999-2001. After that he joined Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, where he is currently a Senior Professor. His area of research interest includes designing novel microporous and mesoporous materials for several frontline applications like H2/CO2 storage, adsorptive removal of heavy metal ions and other pollutants from contaminated water, heterogeneous catalysis for the synthesis of fine chemicals, CO2 utilization reactions for the synthesis of fuels and chemicals, CO2 reduction, synthesis of biofuels, electrochemical and photoelectrochemical water splitting etc. Prof. Bhaumik has published over 520 research articles. He is in the Editorial Board of Green Chemistry, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, ChemCatChem, Chemistry-An Asian Journal, European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, BMC Chemistry. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC).