We are extending the toolbox of materials and chemical strategies that we are developing for the purification and cryo-EM imaging of protein to augment the multidisciplinary and integrative research efforts focused on the development of effective sensing platforms. Development of point-of-care (POC) disease diagnostics and onsite detection of chemicals platforms hold great potential to improve healthcare and environmental monitoring in both developing and developed nations. Timely disease diagnosis is critical for preventing its transition to chronic state. In resource deprived countries, proper medical diagnostic facilities are only available in hospitals located in the main cities. People living in far off areas do not have access to sophisticated diagnostic facilities. This results in delays in diagnosis and nullifies any opportunity for intervention. We are functionalizing a range of different substrates including thin films as well as natural and synthetic fibers (optical fibers, polyester, cotton, nanoporous regenerated cellulose) with active coatings enhanced by incorporation of nanoparticles to develop surfaces for enhancing the amount of the immobilized proteins and other sensing ligands for enhanced sensor activity and sensitivity without resorting to the relatively costly approaches currently being practiced. The goal is to develop low cost POC diagnostics systems accessible to all. Biosensors including simple dipstick assay and lateral flow assays (LFAs) are focus on our attention. In addition to biosensing applications, chemical sensing platforms consisting of nanoparticles displaying SPR or Raman scattering confined on the surface of flexible polymer films are being developed for a range of chemical sensing applications. We are developing colorimetric sensors for diverse range of analytes that have direct impact on public health (e.g., toxic metals, toxic gases).

Fuel cells: The rapidly depleting fossil fuels reserves and the emission of harmful greenhouse gases during their combustion have strongly prompted scientific and engineering communities to find alternative energy producing technologies. In this context, fuel cells are attracting attention owing to their environmentally benign nature. The efficiency of a proton exchange membranes (PEMs) based fuel cells strongly depends on the efficiency of proton conductivity through membrane. Efforts have been made to improve efficiency of fuel cells by incorporating different types of inorganic oxide nano/micro-particles in the PEMs. In this regard, we are developing inorganic oxide additives modified with hygroscopic/protogenic groups bearing polymers and employing them as additives to proton conductivity of PEM for fuel cell applications. Besides, we are developing novel polymer-based ligands for the development of nanoparticles for catalytic splitting of water into fuel for fuel cells.

Materials for efficient photovoltaic devices and accelerated artificial photosynthesis: Covalent conjugates of side chain engineered electron donor P3HT and electron acceptor species (fullerene and non-fullerene): Energy is undoubtedly the most important prerequisite for sustaining social and economic progress. Access to reliable sources of energy is necessary to support modernization and growth of industry, agriculture, and transportation. Furthermore, energy is also the key to developing industries in completely new technology domains that could produce products and offer services to reduce reliance on imports and improve quality of life. While energy can be produced from a variety of different sources, most of our current energy needs are being met through the fossil fuels (oil, gas, and coal) based energy producing technologies. These technologies transform the energy stored in fossil fuels into heat to produce electricity or perform other useful work. Despite their widespread use, the environmental concerns such as anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and volatile hydrocarbons contributing to the global warming and climate change, and geopolitical issues related to the use of fossil fuels make it imperative to find clean and reliable alternative energy sources. Interestingly, fossil fuels are a chemical form of solar energy harvested via photosynthesis and conserved in earth over millions of years. Inspired by this incredible natural phenomenon, finding ways to harness solar energy for producing electricity and chemicals is an active area of high socioeconomic, environmental, and scientific interest. Among various solar energy harvesting systems, photovoltaic devices (clean route to electricity) and photoinducible metabolic processes in microorganisms (artificial photosynthesis: CO2 fixation and clean route to chemicals) are the two most promising systems with enormous potential to emerge as cleaner avenues to producing energy and chemicals at large scale. We are developing novel covalent conjugates of electron donor semiconducting polymers and electron acceptor species. The targeted covalent hybrids are anticipated to exhibit superior solar energy harvesting to augment two allied technological domains (1) enhancement of photocurrent generation in photodetector devices and (2) photoinduced acceleration of CO2 fixation and chemical production in microorganisms via artificial photosynthesis. Outcomes of this project will directly contribute to two intertwined areas namely Sustainable Energy and Energy Efficiency, and Climate Mitigation and Adaptation.

The recent scientific, industrial and technological developments have revolutionized our standards of living, pertinent to food, shelter, health and locomotion, communication. However, these beneficial developments are not for free, and we have paid and are still paying a heavy cost in the form of contaminating our own habitat, our environment. Water is one of the most important constituents of our environment and constitutes the very basis of our lives. Alongside the other environmental elements (air and soil) water has also been heavily contaminated and the situation is generally very alarming as safety measures are deliberately overlooked for the sake of rapid development. This practice usually leads to contaminated water reserves (also air and soil contamination) with severe implications on public health, crops productivity of soil, contamination of the produces, health and productivity of livestock industry and hence can harshly hamper country’s economy. The water contaminant can be both organic and inorganic in their chemical nature and can stem from human activities and industrial emissions. We are developing a diverse range of highly efficient materials based on mesoporous silica, iron oxide nanoparticles and biomass ash residues. We are developing materials with increased number of accessible active functionalities to improve contaminant removal capacity and efficiency of remediation systems.

Development of New Monomers their Polymerization Reactions, New Polymer Brushes, and UV-Printed Functional Coatings

With the ever-growing demand of functional materials for a variety of applications, it is necessary to develop new monomers tailor made for certain applications. In this context are keenly involved in the synthesis of a variety of new monomer (vinylic, cyclic esters and amides, and new monomers for semiconductor polymer synthesis) and development of their respective controlled polymerization protocols. Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), single electron transfer living radical polymerization (SET-LRP), reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization, nitroxide mediated polymerization (NMP), ring opening polymerization (ROP), and Grignard metathesis (GRIM) polymerization constitute the focused polymerization techniques. The successful development of controlled polymerization techniques contributes to the development of novel polymeric architectures from the newly developed monomers. These include block copolymers, multi-arm polymers (star), polymer brushes (grafting-from and grafting-to approaches for molecular and surface – nano- and porous-materials – grafted polymer brushes), and UV curable functional coatings. This activity actually fuels the development of the activities described in the previous sections. Particularly in case the development of functional coatings, we are developing functional nanofilms for a range of applications including protein-repellent (antifouling), antithrombogenic, and antimicrobial coatings as well as functional coatings for sensing applications.

A number of our active projects contribute to the global goal of accomplishing sustainability and circular economy. Some of the projects are listed here.

Reprogrammable Materials: The concepts of chemistry are expected to play a central role in practical realization of the Circular Economy model for a Sustainable Future. In this context, an emerging idea holding enormous potential is the possibility of reprograming the chemical nature of chemicals and materials once they have served a certain application and make them reusable as pristine substances for either the same or a markedly different application. Considering the ever-evolving challenges associated with the sustainable and reliable access to functional materials and their fossil fuel origin, the discovery of such strategies will enable the practical realization of Circular Economy model.

Transforming (biomass) ash residues into commercializable products: Thousands of tons of ash residues are being produced through the operation of thermal power stations installed under public or private domains. From industry’s perspective, the ash residues are both environmental and economic burden. Through an active technology exchange cooperation with Bulleh Shah Packaging (BSP), we are working on a number of ideas to transform ash residues into revenue generating products. Our in-depth characterization of ash residues revealed a huge potential for their transformation into construction related products and fertilizers.

Upcycling of plastic: Plastic waste management through upcycling: The plastic product segment is a fast-growing, due primarily to the low cost, durability and light-weight features that are innate to plastics. Ironically these are also the same reasons why plastic is becoming an unpopular material worldwide: low-cost means high volume as its cheaper; durability means it stays in the environment long after its useful shelf life thus adding to environmental pollution; light-weight because it’s the most visible amongst the trash items (floats in the water as opposed to paper bags which drown in it and are thus not visible). In 2019, 360 million metric tons of plastic was produced globally, and global plastic recycling rate stands at mere 18%. The low rate of plastic recycling stems from the fact that most of the recycling technologies are linear, limited to accumulation in landfills, littering, downcycling, and incineration, and offer low economic incentives and hence are commercially non-viable. The current practices of downcycling and incineration of plastic waste inflicting irreparable harm to the environment and harming life in many ways. Therefore, effective plastic waste management processes are urgently needed from both environmental and economic standpoints. We have developed a set of environment-friendly chemical and mechanical processes that can extract upcycled, virgin-like polymer from a diverse range of plastics. The patent pending technology is being commercialized through a Start-up Suftech Innovations Pvt. Ltd.