Department of Chemistry

Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is a premier institute of science and technology established in 2008. IITH has been consistently ranked in the&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/reports/" rel="noopener noreferrer">top 10 institutes</a>&nbsp;in India for Engineering&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nirfindia.org/2021/EngineeringRanking.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to NIRF</a>&nbsp;making it one of the most coveted schools for science and technology in the country.

IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/under-graduate/">undergraduate programs</a>&nbsp;in all the classical engineering disciplines, applied sciences, design, as well as several modern interdisciplinary areas. Students are given a flexibility to explore a broad set of areas, and potentially pursue a minor or double major in a discipline that is not their own. Students who wish to seek a deeper understanding of their own discipline are strongly encouraged to get involved in cutting-edge research with the help of a faculty to mentor them, and earn an Honors in their own field.

The very foundation of IIT Hyderabad is based on&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/">research and innovation</a>. The vibrant research culture is evident from the number of patents and publications that IITH produces consistently every year. IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/programmes-offered/">graduate programs</a>&nbsp;at both a masters, and a doctoral level, in several diverse areas. There are separate programs for technology, design, science, and liberal arts. The&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/post-graduate/">MTech program</a>&nbsp;is offered in various modes and durations to cater to the ever-growing need of postgraduate level professionals in the country.

IITH encourages and supports&nbsp;<a href="https://iic-iith.netlify.app/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">innovation and entrepreneurship</a>&nbsp;at every stage. The minor program in entrepreneurship is open to all students of IITH, and many of the courses are offered by industrialists who are entrepreneurs themselves. There are various&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/centres-incubators/">innovation centers and incubators</a>&nbsp;that promote entrepreneurship and help mentor young innovators. IITH has been very successful in building tie-ups with leading academic institutions around the globe.

IITH enjoys a very special relationship with Japanese universities and industries that goes beyond academic and research collaborations. In fact, some of the iconic buildings in IITH campus will carry the signature of Japanese architecture.

IITH creates a unique holistic ecosystem for education that offers interactive learning, a very flexible academic structure, cutting-edge research, strong industry collaboration, and entrepreneurship. This is an environment which enables students and faculty to translate their dreams into realities.

IIT Hyderabad

Antireflection titanium dioxide (TiO2) coatings have been developed on monocrystalline silicon by a sol-gel spin-coating process using titanium di-isopropoxidebis(acetylacetonate) colloidal precursor solution. The effect of titanium content in the precursor, spin rate, sintering duration and temperature have been studied and their effect on coating thickness and optical properties (i.e., refractive index and reflectivity) were investigated. The influence of post-deposition sintering temperature on the optical characteristics, composition and the microstructure of the coatings have been evaluated by UV-vis spectroscopy, ellipsometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques. Solar cells made on silicon wafers with TiO2 as antireflection layer showed enhancement of more than 20% in short circuit current density in comparison to a cell devoid of the TiO2 coating. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 20.

World University root node

Materials Chemistry and Physics

Controlled synthesis and characteristics of antireflection coatings of TiO2 produced from a organometallic colloid

Composite films of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxypyrrole) (PEDOP) enwrapped by reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and flanked by an ionic liquid (IL: dialkyl substituted imidazolium imide) have been synthesized. To study the effect of functionalized RGO on the polymer, the structure, conduction properties, and redox chemistry of the PEDOP-RGO/IL composite films have been compared with that of the control PEDOP-IL film, doped only by the ionic liquid imide anion. Evidence for the successful inclusion of RGO/IL in PEDOP was obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy, in the form of modified C1s signals, new signals due to nitrogen and sulfur, and also the revelation of a quasi-hexagonal assembly of atoms in the RGO/IL nanosheets. Conductive-atomic force microscopy revealed the role of RGO/IL in completely modifying the charge carrying ability of PEDOP, as unusually high current values and a largely uniform current distribution were achieved in the PEDOP-RGO/IL composite in contrast to control PEDOP-IL. Point contact I-V profiles showed that the population of insulating domains flanking the conducting polymer grains is drastically reduced on replacing the IL dopant with RGO/IL in PEDOP. A reduced Fermi edge to valence band gap, an exemplary electrochromic coloring efficiency of 477 cm2 C-1 (γmax = 509 nm), a 2-fold increment in dc electronic conductivity, improved switching kinetics, an amplified charge insertion-extraction capacity, as opposed to the case for control film, mirrored the role of RGO/IL in controlling the charge transport dynamics of PEDOP. The results show that the entrapping of a conducting polymer by RGO based nanostructures affords tunable redox, electronic and optical properties, thus providing a paradigm for mapping the current distribution in similar nanocomposites. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

Journal of Physical Chemistry C

Poly(3,4-Ethylenedioxypyrrole) enwrapped by reduced graphene oxide: How conduction behavior at nanolevel leads to increased electrochemical activity

Novel growth morphologies of sharp needle-shaped tetrapods and coexistent tetrapods and nanowires of ZnO have been prepared by sublimation of pure Zn utilizing a simple solid - catalyst free - vapour mechanism at the temperatures of 950 and 1100 °C, respectively. These striking differences in these microscopic objects, which evolved at two different process temperatures, were deduced from electron paramagnetic resonance and Raman spectra thereby revealing the role of microstructures, defects and oxygen vacancies in ZnO at lattice scale, which are receptive for luminescence, and electrochemical activity of this functional oxide. © 2011 VBRI press.

Fulltext

Advanced Materials Letters

Shape selective growth of ZnO nanostructures: Spectral and electrochemical response

A protecting-group-free two-step approach for the preparation of tetrahydroquinolines has been developed. The procedure involves a highly regio-and enantioselective intermolecular iridium-catalyzed allylic amination followed by one-pot hydroboration and intramolecular Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling. This method was applied in total syntheses of the alkaloids (+)-angustureine and (-)-cuspareine. © 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

European Journal of Organic Chemistry

Enantioselective syntheses of tetrahydroquinolines based on iridium-catalyzed allylic substitutions: Total syntheses of (+)-angustureine and (-)-cuspareine

The noncovalent self-assembly of chromophores in an organoclay template results in the formation of fluorescent hybrid hydrogels and films. These clay-dye hybrids act as novel supramolecular scaffolds for light-harvesting as the aminoclay (AC) templates the spatial organization of donor and acceptor molecules to promote Förster resonant energy transfer (see picture; CS=coronene salt, PS=perylene salt). © 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Angewandte Chemie - International Edition

Light-harvesting hybrid hydrogels: Energy-transfer-induced amplified fluorescence in noncovalently assembled chromophore-organoclay composites

The color of the photoluminescence (PL) of silica nanostructures changes remarkably from blue to bluish green, with the addition of mineral acids. This remarkable observation is rationalized in light of an excited-state protonation of some of the trap states, as well as electrostatic assistance provided by the H3O+ ions adsorbed at the surface. A combination of these two leads to more efficient trapping. The enhanced trapping is manifested in the time-resolved PL parameters and spectra. A fast decay of PL is observed in the higher-energy region of the spectrum, while a rise, with an almost equal time constant, is observed at the lower-energy end. Time-resolved area-normalized emission spectra are dominated by a structured spectrum in the high-energy region at shorter times and a broad, red shifted spectrum at longer times. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

Enhanced trapping efficiency in acid-treated silica nanostructures

Molecules with multiple hydrogen bonding sites offer the opportunity to investigate competitive hydrogen bonding. Such an investigation can become quite interesting, particularly when the molecule of interest has neither lone-pair electrons nor strongly acidic/basic groups. Phenylacetylene is one such molecule with three hydrogen bonding sites that cannot be ranked into any known hierarchical pattern. Herein we review the structures of several binary complexes of phenylacetylene investigated using infrared optical double-resonance spectroscopy in combination with high-level ab initio methods. The diversity of intermolecular structures formed by phenylacetylene with various reagents is remarkable. The nature of intermolecular interaction with various reagents is the result of a subtle balance between various configurations and competition between the electrostatic and dispersion energy terms, while trying to maximize the total interaction strength. © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

ChemPhysChem

Phenylacetylene: A hydrogen bonding chameleon

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics

Erratum: A π-stacked phenylacetylene dimer ((2011) 13 (16706-16712) DOI 10.1039/C1CP20677J))

Oxidative decomposition of dilute nitrobenzene in air was carried out in a catalytic plasma reactor with an inner electrode made of sintered metal fibres (SMF) that also acted as catalyst. The parameters of the concentration, specific input energy, and gas residence time were optimized. The modification of the SMF inner electrode with transition metal oxides like MnOx and CoOx oxides promoted complete oxidation, especially at low input energy. CoOx/SMF showed higher activity than MnOx/SMF and SMF, and could oxidise completely 100 ppm of nitrobenzene at 300 J/L.

Cuihua Xuebao/Chinese Journal of Catalysis

Catalytic plasma reactor for abatement of dilute nitrobenzene

Thermolysis of Ni butanethiolate in a sulfur atmosphere has been carried out at 300 and 600 °C to produce NiS2 nanocrystalline films with mean crystallite sizes of 16 and 192 nm and resistivity values of ∼451 and 3540 μω•m, respectively; the resistivity values are ∼2 orders of magnitude less compared to the bulk value (12000 μω•m). This is a significant observation since NiS2 is an insulator in the bulk. Combining electrostatic force microscopy, transport, and surface degradation experiments, we establish conclusively that the surface layer of NiS2 is metallic. The density of the surface conduction states computed through the variable range hopping model is found to be comparable to the bulk density of states of good metals. The precursor is also amenable for patterning by electron beam and molding. © 2011 American Chemical Society.