School of Basic Sciences

Department of Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry was started as Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2011 and then separated as Department of Chemistry in 2015. Since the inception of the Department, it is contributing in the Teaching as well in Research and playing a pivotal role in the development and ranking of the university. The Department of Chemistry is running three programmes: MSc Chemistry, MSc Chemistry (Specialization: Applied Chemistry) and PhD Chemistry with total student strength of 112. The Department has 8 faculty members which includes one Professor, two Associate Professors and five Assistant Professors. Currently the Department is running from the transit facility with limited resources. However, in this short span of time, faculty of the Department have received research funding amounting to Rs 498 Lakh from various finding agencies including DST, DBT, ICMR, CSIR UGC etc. In addition, the faculty members have published about 80 articles in well reputed International journals with high impact factors with an average impact factor of about 4.7. The University is moving to newly built campus where modern laboratories and class rooms with all the necessary infrastructure is available.

All the faculty members of the Department are highly qualified and have exposure from highly reputed national and international Institutes/Universities. The faculty members have diverse research profile working in the frontier area of research. Each faculty member has at least three to four extramural research grants received from different funding agencies. Most of the faculty members are working in collaboration with other Departments of the University and with national and international Institutes. Even with limited resources in hand, faculty members are publishing their research work in high impact journals.

Salient features of the Department:

  1. The Master programme of the Department is the most sought after programme in the University. Students from almost all the states of India join the Chemistry Department for their post graduation studies.
  2. Students form the Department are successfully qualifying national level examinations like CSIR-UGC NET JRF and GATE. Many students get selected for higher studies in highly reputed institutes like IITs and IISERs. Many passed out students from the Department have joined various government jobs and other assignments in Industries.
  3. Faculty members of the Department are involved in the frontier areas of research. The research groups are working on Organic synthesis following sustainable practices, drug discovery and development, material chemistry specially nanoclusters and nanoparticles. Other research groups are working on biosensors and environmental remedification.
  4. In the last three years, about 45 research articles have been published from the Department and research funding of more than 200 Lakh have been received from different funding agencies. Two patent applications have been filed in Indian patent office.

Faculty

  1. Dr. Rajesh Kumar, Professor
    Profile     Publications
  2. Dr. Vinod Kumar, Associate Professor & HOD
    Profile     Publications
  3. Dr. Virender Singh, Associate Professor
    Profile     Publications
  4. Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Assistant Professor
    Profile     Publications
  5. Dr. Krishna Kanta Haldar, Assistant Professor
    Profile     Publications
  6. Dr. Rajendra Singh Dhayal, Assistant Professor
    Profile     Publications
  7. Dr. J. Nagendra Babu, Assistant Professor
    Profile     Publications
  8. Dr. Biplab Banerjee, Assistant Professor
    Profile     Publications

Non-Teaching Staff

  1. Mr. Dushyanth Reddy Vennapu, Laboratory Assistant
  2. Mr. Preeti Parbhat, Laboratory Attendant (Half day)

Academic Programmes Offered

  • 2020-22
    • M.Sc Chemistry
    • M.Sc. Chemistry (Specialization: Applied Chemistry)
    • Ph.D Chemistry
  • 2019-20
    • M.Sc Chemistry
    • M.Sc. Chemistry (Specialization: Applied Chemistry)
    • Ph.D Chemistry

Syllabi

Research Highlights

Faculty members in the department are working broadly in two different research fields:

  1. Sustainable Organic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry
  2. Material for Energy and Environment

Dept of Chemistry

  1. Sustainable Organic and Medicinal Chemistry

    2. Research groups are involved in the development of new and environmentally friendly methodologies for commercial and biologically important molecules using various tools of Green Chemistry (Ionic liquids, microwave-assisted organic synthesis, multi-component reactions). Groups are also involved in advanced synthesis and catalysis while exploring benign routes for C-H bond activation/functionalization using heterogeneous catalysis. We are involved in the total synthesis and asymmetric synthesis of bioactive natural products and their mimics. We are also involved in diversity-oriented synthesis of molecular hybrids by using natural products as templates. The molecules synthesized during the development processes are being explored for various biological activities such as anticancer and anti-Alzheimer’s agents. In the field of peptide and protein chemistry, unnatural amino acid are synthesized and incorporated in the protein to conduct the structure and function studies.
    Chitosan-supported copper catalyst (chit@CuI) for the A3-coupling

    Dept of Chemistry

    Tetrahedron Lett.2018,59, 1986-1991

    Multicomponent decarboxylative A3-coupling for the synthesis of propargylamines:

    Dept of Chemistry

    Journal ofOrganic Chemistry, 2020, 85, 2231-2241.

    DEpt of Chemistry
    Diverse β-carboline tethered and N-fused frameworks synthesized using Kumujian C (a natural product) as a template
    Medicinal Chemistry research groups are working towards the design, synthesis and evaluation of variety of small organic molecules against cancer and various neurological disorders. Chronic diseases like cancer and neurological disorders are multi-factorial in nature and involve complex pathology. Single targeting agents were not found effective against these kinds of disorders and now multi-target-directed ligands are being explored as therapeutic agents for the treatment of these multifactorial diseases.

    Dept of Chemistry

  2. Material, Energy and Environmental Chemistry

Nanomaterials research groups are studying the application of nanocrystals with special focus on semiconductor nanocrystals and hybrid metal-semiconductor nanoparticles. These nanocrystals can potentially be used as building blocks of nanotechnological devices. The group is involved in the preparation, characterization, evaluation of optical, electrical and electronic properties of nanocrystals and nanorods and their applications in optics, solar energy, catalysis, electro-optics and biology.
Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistryresearch group is working on the coinage metal hydrides, superatom nanoclusters, nanomaterials, metallaboranes. The group is involved in the conversion of hazardous gases like CO2/CO into useful organic compounds. The isolated novel metal hydrides are being explored for hydrogen generation using solar energy. This group also has research interests in creating superatom nanoclusters to understand the atomic level structure and their applications in the field of nanoscience.

Supramolecular Environment Group is involved in the design and synthesis of calix[4/6]arene based receptors for inclusion-based sensing of organic analytes with quantum dots as transducer and supramolecular self-assemblies as chemotherapeutic drug delivery vehicles. Environmental contaminants like arsenic and pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) are being investigated for contamination pathway in local environment. Due to health risk in the Malwa region, cost effective cellulose nZVI composites as sustainable material for adsorptive removal of a broad range of contaminants and fly-ash as catalyst for pyrolysis of rice straw with biochar-based carbon sequestration is being investigated currently.  

Research Grant received from different agencies during the last five years:

    1. Total Amount (Rs) and Number of Research Projects: 25
    2. Details thereof: Total grant generated: 498.19 Lakh
Name of the Investigator Title of the project and duration Amount sanctioned Funding Agency
Dr. Rajesh Kumar The Role of Macromolecular Crowding on Structure, Function, Stability and Folding of Serum Transferrin 24.72 DBT
Dr. Rajesh Kumar Kinetic and Thermodynamic Studies of the Effects of
Synergistic and Nonsynergistic Anions on Blood P		 52.63 DST
Dr. Rajesh Kumar The Mechanism of Reductive Release of Iron from Serum Transferrin, 39.12 ICMR
Dr. Rajesh Kumar Structural, Kinetic and Thermodynamic Studies on Macromolecular Crowding on Eye Lens Crystallins 3.0 CUP Bathinda
Dr. Rakesh Kumar Direct C-H bond functionalization of heteroarenes via dehydrative and dehydrogenative coupling strategies. 16.59 DST Fast Track
Dr. Rakesh Kumar Green approaches for C-C bond formation via direct decarboxylative coupling strategies. 3.0 CUP Bathinda
Dr. Rajendra S. Dhayal Nanosized Copper polyhydrides and H2 evolution under Solar energy 3 years 27.40 DST Fast Track
Dr. Rajendra S. Dhayal Role of boron passivated 1D NiO in  energy storage applications 3 Years (Co-PI) 13.80 UGC-DAE
Dr. Rajendra S. Dhayal Ligand exchange to develop nanoclusters UGC-Startup 3 Years   6.0 UGC-Startup
Dr. Rajendra S. Dhayal Stabilization of copper polyhydrides by diselenocarbamate ligand Sanctioned amount 3.0 CUP Bathinda
Dr. K. K. Haldar Developing novel TiO2/ZnO multifunctional nanomaterials based photoanode to improve the efficiency of photoelectrochemical cell 50.86 DST-serb
Dr. K. K. Haldar Heterogeneous photocatalytic degradation of organic molecules on metal- metal semiconductor multifunctional nanomaterials 3.0 CUP Bathinda
Dr. K. K. Haldar Interfacial Charge Carrier Dynamics in Metal-semiconductor Heterostructure 10.0 UGC-Startup
Dr. J. Nagendra Babu Spatial Distribution of Uranium and Associated Water Quality Parameters in Groundwater/Drinking Water of six Districts (Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana, SBS Nagar, Rupnagar, Barnala) of Punjab and One District (Hanumangarh) in Rajasthan, India 24.6 BRNS
Dr. J. Nagendra Babu Studies in the Synthesis of Cellulose Immobilized Iron Nanoparticle in Ionic Liquid– Towards Sustainable Water Purification Technology 3.0 CUP Bathinda
Dr. Biplab Banerjee UGC Faculty Recharge Programme 10.0 UGC-FRP
Dr Vinod Kumar Design, synthesis and evaluation of combrestatins inspired small molecules as putative tubulin polymerization inhibitors 3 Lakhs CUPB (RSM)
Dr Vinod Kumar Spatial distribution of Uranium and associated water quality parameters in groundwater/drinking water resources of South Eastern districts of Punjab (co-PI) 26.97 Lakh BRNS
Dr Vinod Kumar Targeting Cancer Stem Cells through One Drug Multi-Target Approach (microtubule inhibition, vascular disruption and anti-angiogenesis) 30.09 Lakh DST Extramural
Dr Vinod Kumar Indo-Austria joint visit grant 9.04 Lakh DST
Dr Vinod Kumar Multi-target paradigm in drug discovery efforts to combat Alzheimer’s Disease 31 Lakh CSIR
Dr Virender Singh Natural Product Inspired Design, Synthesis, and Anticancer Evaluation of β-Carboline Derivatives. 2015-2017, 3 year
(02(0202)/14/EMR-II)		 17.004 Lakh CSIR, New Delhi
Dr Virender Singh Application of Building Blocks from Morita-Baylis-Hillman Chemistry for the Synthesis of Privileged Scaffolds. 2013-2015, 3 year, (SB/FT/CS-188/2011) 23.70 Lakh SERB-DST, New Delhi
Dr Virender Singh Development of New Platform for A3-Coupling and other Multicomponent Reactions towards Drug-Like Molecules using Transition Metal Catalysis. 2017-2021, 3.5 year, EMR/2017/000155 36.058 Lakhs SERB-DST, New Delhi
Dr Virender Singh Design and Synthesis of β-Carboline Based Therapeutically Potential Molecular Architectures via Exploration of Chemselectivity of Aldo-X Bifunctional Building Blocks (AXB3s). 2019-2022, 3 year. (02(0356)/19/EMR-II) 30.608 Lakhs CSIR, New Delhi

 

Number of Full Time Ph.D research scholars with fellowships awarded from any agency in the department

S No. Name of PhD scholar Date of joining Fellowship awarding agency
1. Pavneet Kaur 2015 DST-INSPIRE
2. Mansi Garg 2016 DBT
3. Samreet 2016 DST-SERB
4. Sangeeta Meena 2017 CSIR-JRF
5. Beeta Kumari 2017 CSIR-JRF
6. Harjinder Singh 2018 CSIR-JRF
7. Amarjeet 2018 CSIR-JRF
8 Dilip Kumar Jangid 2018 CSIR-JRF
9. Sanjeev Kumar 2019 CSIR-JRF
10. Khaddim Hussain 2019 CSIR-JRF
11 Rathindranath Biswas 2019 DST-INSPIRE
12. Naveen Banyal 2019 CSIR-SRF
13. Rahul Jamra 2019 CSIR-JRF
14 Vinay Kumar 2020 CSIR-JRF
15. Imtiaz Ahmed 2020 CSIR JRF

Number of Students (year-wise) who qualified in NET in M.Sc Program or GATE (more than 90% percentile) qualified in ME/ M Tech Program

S.No.  Student Name Batch   Qualification
1. Diptiranjan Paital 2015-2017 NET-LS/GATE-2017
2. Deependu Dolui 2015-2017 GATE-2017
3. Jitendra Kumar 2016-2018 GATE-2018
4. Mansi Garg 2016-2018 GATE-2017
5. Jitendra Kumar 2016-2018 NET-JRF Dec 2018
6. Manoj Kumar 2016-2018 NET-LS Dec 2018
7. Rohtash Kumar 2016-2018 NET-LS Dec 2017
NET-JRF Dec 2018
8. Ram Singh 2016-2018 NET-JRF Dec 2018
9. Imtiaz Ali 2016-2018 NET-JRF Dec 2017
SLET 2017
10. Khaddim Hussain 2017-2019 NET-JRF Dec 2018
11. Apurva Mishra 2017-2019 NET-JRF Dec 2019
GATE- 2020
12 Yashika Thakur 2017-2019 GATE- 2019
13. Mahesh 2017-2019 GATE-2019
14 Bhawana Devi 2017-2019 NET-LS Dec 2019
GATE 2019
15. Preetika Verma 2017-2019 NET-LS Dec 2019
GATE 2019
16. Rohit Mehrok 2017-2019 GATE 2020
17. Anu Bovas 2017-2019 NET-JRF Dec 2019
GATE 2019
18. Manajit Mandal 2017-2019 GATE 2019
19. Ashish Kmar Satti 2017-2019 GATE 2019
20. Meenu Kumari 2017-2019 GATE 2020
21. Ritu Poonia 2017-2019 GATE 2020
22. Arun 2017-2019 NET-JRF Dec 2019
GATE-2020
23. Raina Sharma 2017-2019 NETGATE-2019
24. Sumita Kumari 2017-2019 GATE-2019
25. Kiranjot Kaur 2018-2020 NET-JRF June 2019
26. Sahil Jindal 2018-2020 NET-JRF Dec 2019
GATE-2020
27. Tanaya Subudhi 2018-2020 GATE-2020
28. Subashri Dutta 2018-2020 GATE-2020
29. Ayushi Gupta 2018-2020 GATE-2020