Prasenjit Ghosh

    Associate Professor

    Department of Chemistry

    Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

    Powai, Mumbai 400076

    Ph:   022-2576 7178

    Fax:  022-2576 7152

    Email: pghosh[at]chem.iitb.ac.in

    Group Webpage

Academic Background

Ph.D. Columbia University

M.Phil. Columbia University

M.Sc. IIT Kanpur, India

B.Sc.  Calcutta University

Professional Experience

Post Doctoral Research, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1998-2001

Post Doctoral Research, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2001-2003

Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, 2003-April,2007

Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay,2007-till date

 

Research Interests


My research interest encompasses a broad area of chemistry that include olefin polymerization, homogeneous catalysis, inorganic/organometallic chemistry and bioinorganic chemistry. The central underlying theme is chemical synthesis. Judiciously engineered small molecules and metal complexes exhibit fascinating properties which otherwise are very hard to achieve and can be exploited for various academic and commercial purposes. Designing smart metal complexes that display interesting properties form the core objective of my research interest.

N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs)


Of late, the N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) are at the center of attraction being phenomenally successful in homogeneous catalysis. Our interest is in design and synthesis of functionalized N-heterocyclic carbenes for their utility in chemical catalysis and in biomedical applications. We endeavor to identify and understand the underlying properties present behind such extraordinary successes of the N-heterocyclic carbenes. Our efforts are directed towards utilizing transition metal complexes of functionalized N-heterocyclic carbenes for producing biodegradable polymers to employing them in a variety of C-C and C-S cross-coupling reactions to exploring their utility as potential metallopharmaceuticals, particularly as anticancer and antimicrobial agents

Olefin Polymerisation


My project on olefin polymerization involves designing catalysts with improved attributes by suitable modification of the ligand ancillary. In particular, I am interested in developing catalysts capable of polymerizing olefins along with copolymerizing the same with polar functional monomers. It is noteworthy, that despite a plethora of olefin polymerization catalysts exist, only a handful of them are known to copolymerize olefins with polar functional monomers, that too these catalysts have been developed only recently. These catalysts are highly air and moisture sensitive and survive only under inert atmospheres. One of the key objectives in this project is to design catalysts that are less sensitive to aerobic conditions and thus would be easy to handle.

The projects have significant synthetic component which would deal with manipulation of air and moisture sensitive compounds in addition to regular organic synthesis. Sophisticated instrumentations like, NMR, X-ray, IR, UV-vis, Mass spectrometry, GC, GC-MS, GPC, Micro Analysis etc. would be extensively used for regular characterizations of the metal complexes and the catalysis end-products. Once synthesized, a detailed evaluation of these catalysts would be carried out subsequently.
 

 

Representative Patents and Publications


PATENTS

Quasi-living metal catalyst for ethylene homo-polymerization and co-polymerization with 5-norbornen -2-yl acetate. Guillermo C. Bazan, Prasenjit Ghosh, Fumihiko Shimizu. US 20040024149.
Metal Catalyst for Olefin Polymerization and Co-polymerization with Functional Monomers. Guillermo C. Bazan and Prasenjit Ghosh. US 20040171479.

PUBLICATIONS
  • Gold(I) N-Heterocyclic Carbene Based Initiators for Bulk Ring-Opening Polymerization of L-lactide.” Ray, L.; Katiyar, V.; Barman, S.; Raihan, M. J.; Nanavati, H.; Shaikh, M. M.; Ghosh, P., J. Organomet. Chem. 2007, In press.

  • Ni(II) and Cu(II) Complexes of Phenoxy-Ketimine Ligands: Synthesis, Structures and their Utility in Bulk Ring-Opening Polymerization (ROP) of L-lactide.” John, A.; Katiyar, V.; Pang, K.; Shaikh, M. M.; Nanavati, H.; Ghosh, P., Polyhedron 2007, In press.

  • Silver N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes as Initiators for Bulk Ring-Opening Polymerization (ROP) of L-lactides.” Samantaray, M. K.; Katiyar, V.; Pang, K.; Nanavati, H..; Ghosh, P., J. Organomet. Chem. 2007, 692, 1672-1682.

  • Pd (II) and Au (I) Complexes of a New O-Functionalized N-Heterocyclic Carbene Ligand: Synthesis, Structures and Catalytic Application.” Ray, L.; Shaikh, M. M.; Ghosh, P., Organometallics 2007, 26, 958-964.

  • First Example of a Gold(I) N-Heterocyclic-Carbene-Based Initiator for the Bulk Ring-Opening Polymerization of L-Lactide.” Ray, L.; Katiyar, V.; Raihan, M.; Nanavati, H.; Shaikh, M. M.; Ghosh, P., Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2006, 3724-3730.

  • Experimental and theoretical studies of a silver complex of O-functionalized N-heterocyclic carbene.” Samantaray, M. K.; Roy, D.; Patra, A; Stephen, R.; Saikh, M. M.; Sunoj, R. B.; Ghosh, P., J. Organomet. Chem. 2006, 691, 3797-3805.

  • A cationic (N-heterocyclic carbene)silver complex as catalyst for bulk Ring-Opening Polymerization of L-lactides.” Samantaray, M. K.; Katiyar, V.; Roy, D.; Pang, K.; Nanavati, H.; Stephen, R.; Sunoj, R. B.; Ghosh, P., Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2006, 2975-2984.