Pragya
PMRF RESEARCH SCHOLAR
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY
IIT KANPUR
Research Interests
Bio-inorganic Chemistry
& Spectroscopic characterization
Active sites of various metalloenzymes contain high valent Metal-oxo's moieties that catalyze several crucial chemical transformations. Taking such designs as our model, we aim to generate mimic to such active sites using simple non-heme ligand designs. Our work is supported via the complete spectroscopic characterization of these high valent Metal-oxo species. Along with that, we do test the generated models for substrate oxidation qualitatively.
My Projects
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PMRF Project
January 2021 - Present
Development of structural and functional models to the Oxygen Evolving Complex in Photosystem-II
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Abstract :
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With the rise in global energy demands and the consequences of extreme dependence on classical energy resources, there is an urgent need to look for greener and renewable resources. Photosystem-II (PS-II), which possesses Mn4CaO5 cluster in the active site, has an exceptional water splitting efficiency. Here, we propose the synthesis and spectroscopic characterization of MnIV/V(O)(µ-O)(LA) species (LA = Lewis acid) as the closest structural, if possible functional models to the active site of the oxygen-evolving complex in PS-II. We aim to understand the working reaction mechanism by characterizing the putative intermediates responsible for their excellent reactivity towards water oxidation, electron transfer, and oxygen atom transfer reactions. We believe that our results may help develop ideal, highly efficient artificial PS-II mimics capable of performing synthetically useful transformations.
A high valent Mn(V)=O supported by a neutral nonheme tetradentate ligand
Jan 2022 - Dec 2022
The manuscript has been submitted to Dalton transactions and is under revision.
Facile formation of a Mn-O-Ce species and its electron transfer equilibria with high valent Mn(IV) complexes
Jan 2022- Dec 2022
The manuscript is under progress and will soon be communicated.
"Believe you can and you're halfway there"
Theodore Roosevelt
