Department of Chemistry

About us

The Department of Chemistry at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus is devoted towards teaching and research. Some of our major research thrust areas include green chemistry, nano materials, polymers, bio-inorganic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, environmental analytical chemistry, synthetic organic chemistry and computational chemistry.

Programmes Offered

The Department offers M.Sc. (Hons.) and Ph.D. programmes in Chemistry :

The M.Sc. (Hons.) program is a four-year program with provision for a dual degree extending to five years total duration. The input to the M.Sc. (Hons.) is through the entrance test (BITSAT) with the minimum qualification being a pass in the 10+2 system with at least 80% marks in Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics. There are about 30 students admitted every year for the M.Sc. (Hons.) program. The academic curriculum for this program is revised constantly and is comparable to any international institution. At the end of the program the students gain industrial experience if they opt for the Practice School (PS) program. Optionally, students may choose to work on an academic thesis of 4-5 months duration.
Ph.D. admissions are based on written exam followed by interview at Hyderabad campus. Currently there are a number of full time research scholars pursuing research in different areas of Chemistry leading to Ph. D. degree. The Ph.D. students are provided fellowships from the sponsored project grants as well as BITS institute support.

Research

The research in the Department of Chemistry, BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus includes the following research areas

Materials Chemistry, Solid State Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Organic Synthesis, Computational Chemistry, Photocatalysis, Electrocatalysis, Laser Spectroscopy, Heterocyclic Chemistry, Bioinorganic Chemistry, Crystal Engineering, Analytical Chemistry, and Nanochemistry.

Faculty achievements

7. ACS best presenter award (25-26th August ACs-Fall ‘2021, Georgia Atlanta) for the presentation entitled “Conformationally twisted phosphonates in generating mechanofluorochromic materials for multicolor ink-free writing” by Dr. Manab Chakravarty.

6. Prof. Manab Chakravarty’s recent work on mechanochromic cocrystal got highlighted in the Chemistry view magazine (online science news magazine of Chemistry Europe)] (published in February 2021)

https://www.chemistryviews.org/details/ezine/11284939/Mechanofluorochromic_Cocrystals.html

5. Dr. Himanshu Aggarwal received the international RSC Research Fund Award in Jan 2021.

4. Dr. Himanshu Aggarwal’s recent collaborative work on using MOF material as a breath sensor got highlighted in Times of India newspaper. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/this-sensor-smartphone-app-detects-sleep-apnea/articleshow/81143285.cms

3. The joint work of Prof. Ramakrishnan Ganesan and Prof. Jayati Ray Dutta was highlighted in ‘The Hindu’ newspaper. ‘BITS-Pilani Hyderabad develops cheap kit to detect Hepatitis C virus’. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/bits-pilani-hyderabad-develops-cheap-kit-to-detect-hepatitis-c-virus/article34055910.ece

2. Dr. Tanmay Chatterjee received the best presentation award for presenting a research paper titled “Visible-light-induced Sustainable Synthesis of Carbazoles’ in an international conference on “Green Technologies for Sustainable Development” (GTSD-2021) from 9th March, 2021 to 11th March, 2021 organized by Dharmsinh Desai University (DDU).

1. Dr. Tanmay Chatterjee awarded with the CSIR-EMR grant in March, 2021.

NOTICE

Ph.D. Admissions

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Current JRF/SRF & Other Openings

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Faculty Recruitment

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Latest News

JRF / SRF :

Applications are invited from Indian citizens for the post of Project Associates-I and II in a DST-PURSE funded project SR/PURSE-2020/20 at BITS-Pilani Hyderabad Campus.

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Recent Publications

Publications (Jan 2022 - March 2022)
Kindly refer to the individual faculty profile pages for complete publication details.

1.Monosaccharide Induced Temporal Delay in Cholesterol Self-Aggregation Rituparna Hazra and Durba Roy*
Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics (2022, Accepted) DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2022.2048076

2.Pyrrole-pyridine chelating motif on the β-carboline skeleton: Selective Zn2+ sensing via inhibition of ESIPT Adarash Kumar Shukla, Rituparna Hazra, Pravesh Sharma, Subit Kumar Saha, Durba Roy, Onkar Prakash Kulkarni, Anupam Bhattacharya*
Dyes and Pigments, 2022, 202, 110238.

3.Photophysical, electrochemical properties and flexible organic solar cell application of 7,7-bis(1-cyclopropyl carbonyl piperazino)-8,8 dicyanoquinodimethane. Anwarhussaini, SD, Renuka H, Anuradha,M, Raghavaiah, P Mahadev Sai Karthik, C, Sanket, G., Subbalakshmi, J.* Materials Advances, 2022, 3, 3151-3164. DOI: 10.1039/D1MA00778E.

4.Unprecedented transformation from cyclized zwitterionic oxazolidine derivatives to corresponding non-zwitterionic aromatic amides via Vilsmeier reagent in a one-pot reaction: Optical property and Crystallography. Anwarhussaini SD, Anuradha, M, Subbalakshmi J.* New Journal of Chemistry, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NJ00591C.

5.Design, Synthesis and Anti-Mycobacterial Evaluation of Imidazo-[1,2-a]-pyridine Analogues. Yogesh Mahadu Khetmalis, Surendar Chitti, Anjani Umarani Wunnava, Banoth Karankumar, Muthyala Murali Krishna Kumar, Murugesan Sankaranarayanan and Kondapalli Venkata Gowri Chandra Sekhar,* RSC Medicinal Chemistry, 2022, 13, 327-342.

6.Search for structurally diverse heterocyclic analogs as dual-acting antimalarial and antileishmanial agents: An overview. Faheem, Sanchita Dey, Samridhi Johri, M. Abirami, Banoth Karan Kuma, Donatella Taramelli, Nicoletta Basilico, Rafael Balana-Fouce, Kondapalli Venkata Gowri Chandra Sekhar, Sankaranarayanan Murugesan. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry Reports, 2022, 4, 100031.

7.Transformation of an Aqueous Micellar Phase to a Bilayer of Gemini Surfactants on Gold Nanoparticles: A Steady-State and Time-Resolved Fluorescence and Fluorescence Anisotropy Study by Tuning the Precise Locations of Probes, Rishika Aggrawal, Sayantan Halder, Balaji Gopalan, Swati Biswas, Subit Kumar Saha*, J. Phys. Chem. C (In Press) (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c09892

8.Concentration-dependent β-cyclodextrin-promoted refolding of gold nanoparticles-conjugated bovine serum albumin complexed with gemini surfactants of different spacer group, Sayantan Halder, Rishika Aggrawal, Subit Kumar Saha*, Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects (In Press) (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2022.128862

9.Insight of solvent effect on CeO2 catalyzed oxidation of styrene with tert-butyl hydroperoxide: A combined experimental and theoretical approach J. Halder, T. Roy, S. Satpati, S. Ghosal, D. Mukherjee, B.M. Reddy Catalysis Communications 164 (2022) 106413.

10.Electrochromic and Photochromic Behaviour in a Single Metal-Organic Framework Containing Redox-Active Linker. G. Radha, S. Roy, C. Chakraborty, H. Aggarwal*, Chemical Communications, 2022, 58, 4024.

11.MOF sensors for food safety: ultralow detection of putrescine and cadaverine in protein rich foods. T. Leelasree, H. Aggarwal*, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022, 10, 2121

12.The Photo and Electro-Catalytic Reduction of CO2 over Metal-Organic Frameworks and Derived Oxides: A correlation of reaction mechanism with electronic structure S. Payra, S. Ray, R. Sharma, K. Tarafder, P. Mohanty, Sounak Roy, Inorganic Chemistry 61 (2022) 2476–2489.

13.The role of synthesis vis-à-vis oxygen vacancies of Co3O4 in oxygen evolution reaction S. Roy, N. Devaraj, K. Tarafder, C. Chakraborty, Sounak Roy, New Journal of Chemistry, XX (2022) XXXXX - YYYYY. DOI: 10.1039/D2NJ00219A.

14.Unprecedented Electroreduction of CO2 over Metal Organic Framework Derived Intermetallic Nano-alloy Cu0.85Ni0.15/C S. Payra, N. Devaraj, K. Tarafder, Sounak Roy, ACS Applied Energy Materials, XX (2022) XXXXX - YYYYY. 10.1021/acsaem.2c00330.

15.Edible acid-base complexes of caffeic acid with histidine and arginine exhibit enhanced antimicrobial and antioxidant characteristics. Hemanjali Mude, Anindita Thakur, Aniket Balapure, Ramakrishnan Ganesan and Jayati Ray Dutta, ACS Food Science & Technology, 2, 368-377, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.1c00472.

16.Enhanced antibacterial, antioxidant and anticancer activity of caffeic acid by simple acid-base complexation with spermine/spermidine. Hemanjali Mude, Aniket Balapure, Anindita Thakur, Ramakrishnan Ganesan and Jayati Ray Dutta, Natural Product Research, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2022.2038597.

17.Structural, Electronic and Thermoelectric Properties of Bi2Se3 Thin Films Deposited by RF Magnetron Sputtering. S. Gautam, Ajay Kumar Verma, Aniket Balapure, B. Singh, Ramakrishnan Ganesan, M. Senthil Kumar, V. N. Singh, Bhasker Gahtori & S. S. Kushvaha. J. Electron. Mater. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-022-09498-7.

18.Sahithi, A., Sumithra, K. (2022). Adsorption of Ammonia on p-doped Graphene Bilayer Surface; Energetics and Electronic Structure. In: Srinivas, R., Kumar, R., Dutta, M. (eds) Advances in Computational Modeling and Simulation. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7857-8_1

19.A. Nag, S. Pawar, D. P. Damera, Book Chapter: “Carbon dots as smart optical sensors” in the edited book “Carbon Dots in Analytical Chemistry”, Published by Elsevier, 2022 (in press).

Highlights

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Chemistry Association

Alchemy

Chemistry Association facilitated the following events:

Freshmen orientation for 2020 chemistry students: 4th December, 2020..

An interview session was held with Dr. Ruchi Jain Dey, Department of Biological Sciences on various virus-related diseases, corona family and Covid-19.

E-Magazine: ELIXIR '20

BITS Pilani