Research

My group is interested in the development of functional nanostructured materials for catalytic, electrocatalytic, photocatalytic, organic, and energy applications through unique tools including chemical synthesis, surface functionalization, ball-milling, ALD and self-assembly techniques. By producing nanomaterials ensembles with well-controlled overall size, composition, 3-D arrangement, porosity, and surface properties.

Our research interests includes:

Sustainable Technologies for Organic Transformations
Waste to Fuel and waste to Health
Plastic Waste Valorization
Synthesis of Pharmaceutical/Industrial Important Intermediates.
Environmental Benign Catalysis: Utilization of CO₂ into Valuable Products
Advanced Functional Materials: Core-Shell Catalyst, N-Doped Carbon Catalyst, and Mesoporous Nanomaterials
Photo (Electro) Catalysis: Photocatalytic Applications in Organic Chemistry, Electrocatalysis – Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER), Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) and Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER).
Development of Single-Atom Catalysts

Highlights of our research activities:

Supported-metal nanostructures, which typically contain a finely dispersed metal atom supported on a solid surface, are often used as a catalyst. Single-atom catalysts (SACs) are emerging as the alternative for conventional catalysts used in various kinds of catalysis such as organic transformations, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, energy, and environmental catalysis. SACs have several advantages over conventional catalysts like, a superior catalytic performance due to high surface area, higher atom economy, higher TON/TOF which are of the utmost importance, when compared to widely used as non-noble and noble metal catalysts.

Carbon-based materials are widely utilized as metal-free catalysts or support in catalysis, energy, and ecological applications because of their interesting properties like high surface areas, size, shape, porosity, and the possibility of incorporating additional moieties through chemical functional designs are believed to be essential for enriching the catalytic activity of carbon-containing materials.

Nanoparticles are regarded as attractive candidates for heterogeneous catalysis in various imperative catalytic processes as they are now easy to synthesize with a desired size, structure, morphology and composition. Keeping in mind, current environmental sustainability concerns, it is important to design inexpensive and benign nanocatalysts for organic transformations/catalytic processess. Over the last decade, a variety of new types of nanocatalysts have been investigated, including well-defined morphology dependent catalysts, core–shell nanocatalysts, silica-based hybrid catalysts, 2-D graphene-based materials and 2D single metal or mixed metal atom nanocatalysts. The ascent of these complex nanomaterials over the last few years has enabled chemists to understand traditional catalysts from a new perspective.

The utilization of fossil fuels, carbon dioxide levels have increased in the atmosphere with increasingly important impacts on the environment that is global warming and ocean acidity. Renewable and clean sources of energy have been proposed, including wind and solar, but they are intermittent and require efficient and scalable energy storage technologies. Developing methods for CO₂ conversion offer ways to integrate carbon capture, utilization, and storage in energy cycles as well as converted into fine chemicals while maintaining controlled levels of atmospheric CO₂.

Applications: The ascent of these complex topics over the last few years has enabled chemists to understand traditional catalysts from a new perspective. The aim of these emerging research areas is to design the materials based on highly important targeted catalytic, selective organic transformations, flow reactions, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, energy and environmental sustainability.

Key Publications:

1. Silica-supported Fe/Fe–O nanoparticles for the catalytic hydrogenation of nitriles to amines in the presence of aluminium additives

Vishwas G. Chandrashekhar, Thirusangumurugan Senthamarai, Ravishankar G. Kadam, Ondřej Malina, Josef Kašlík, Radek Zbořil,* Manoj B. Gawande*, Rajenahally V. Jagadeesh* and Matthias Beller*

Nature Catalysis, 2021,DOI: 10.1038/s41929-021-00722-x (IF-41.81)

2. Silver nanomaterials: synthesis and (electro/photo) catalytic applications

Rakesh Kumar Sharma,* Sneha Yadav, Sriparna Dutta, Hanumant B. Kale, Indrajeet R. Warkad, Radek Zbořil, Rajender S. Varma* and Manoj B. Gawande*

Chemical Society Reviews, 2021,50, 11293-11380 (IF– 54.56)

3. Carbon-based Single Atom Catalysts for Advanced Applications

Manoj B. Gawande,* Paolo Fornasiero and Radek Zbořil*

ACS Catalysis, 2020, 10, 2231-2259 (IF-13.08)

4. Fe(0)-embedded thermally reduced graphene oxide as efficient nanocatalyst for reduction of nitro compounds to amines

Anandarup Goswami, Ravishankar G. Kadam, Jiří Tuček, Zdeněk Sofer, Daniel Bouša, Rajender S. Varma, Manoj B. Gawande,* Radek Zbořil*

Chemical Engineering Journal, 2020, 382, 122469 (IF-13.27)

5. Recent development of covalent organic frameworks (COFs): synthesis and catalytic (organic-electro-photo) applications

Rakesh Kumar Sharma, * Priya Yadav, Manavi Yadav, Radhika Gupta, Pooja Rana, Anju Srivastava, Radek Zboril,Rajender S. Varma,* Markus Antonietti and Manoj B. Gawande*

Mater. Horiz., 2020,7, 411-454 (IF-13.26)

6. Mixed-valence single-metal-ion catalyst derived from functionalized graphene

Aristides Bakandritsos, Ravishankar G. Kadam, Pawan Kumar, Giorgio Zoppellaro, Miroslav Medveď,Jiri Tucek, Tiziano Montini, Ondřej Tomanec, Pavlína Andrýsková, Bohuslav Drahoš, Rajender S. Varma,Michal Otyepka, Manoj B. Gawande,* Paolo Fornasiero* and Radek Zbořil*

Advanced Materials, 2019, 1900323. Inside Cover Page (IF-30.84)

7. Cobalt-entrenched N-, O-, and S-tridoped carbons as efficient multifunctional sustainable catalysts for base-free selective oxidative esterification of alcohols

Devaki Nandan, Giorgio Zoppellaro, Ivo Medřík, Claudia Aparicio, Pawan Kumar, Martin Petr, Ondřej Tomanec, Manoj B. Gawande,* Rajender S. Varma and Radek Zbořil*

Green Chemistry, 2018, 20, 3542-3556 (IF-10.18)

8. Ag@Co_xP Core-Shell Heterogeneous Nanoparticles as Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction Catalysts

Yuhui Hou, Yipu Liu, Ruiqin Gao, Qiuju Li, Huizhang Guo, Anandarup Goswami, Radek Zbořil, Manoj B. Gawande,* and Xiaoxin Zou*

ACS Catalysis, 2017, 7, 7038–7042 (IF- 13.08)

9. Base-free Transfer Hydrogenation of Nitroarenes Catalyzed by Micro-mesoporous Iron Oxide

Kasibhatta J. Datta, Anuj K. Rathi, Manoj B. Gawande,* Vaclav Ranc, Giorgio Zoppellaro, Rajender S. Varma, Radek Zbořil*

ChemCatChem, 2016, 8, 2351–2355. (IF- 5.68); Citations- 36

Selected for Front cover

10. Cu and Cu-based nanoparticles: Synthesis and Applications in Catalysis

Manoj B. Gawande,* Anandarup Goswami, François-Xavier Felpin, Tewodros Asefa, Xiaoxi Huang, Rafael Silva, Xiaoxin Zou, Radek Zbořil, and Rajender S. Varma*

Chemical Reviews, 2016, 116 (6), 3722–3811. (IF- 60.62); Citations- more than 1572 citations

11. Core-shell Nanomaterials: Synthesis and Applications in Catalysis and Electrocatalysis

Manoj B. Gawande,* Anandarup Goswami, Tewodros Asefa, Huizhang Guo, Ankush V. Biradar Dong-Liang Peng, Radek Zbořil and Rajender S. Varma*

Chemical Society Reviews, 2015, 44, 7540-7590. (IF- 54.56); Citations- 500

12. Silica-nanosphere-based organic–inorganic hybrid nanomaterials: synthesis, functionalization and applications in catalysis

R.K. Sharma,* Shivani Sharma, Sriparna Dutta, Radek Zbořil, Manoj B. Gawande*

Green Chemistry, 2015, 17, 3207-3230. (IF- 10.18); Citations- 178

13. Integrated Nanocatalysts: A Unique Class of Heterogeneous Catalysts

Manoj B. Gawande,* Radek Zbořil, Victor Malgras, and Yusuke Yamauchi

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2015, 3, 8241-8245. (IF- 12.73); Citations- 41

14. Microwave-Assisted Chemistry: Synthetic Applications for Rapid Assembly of Nanomaterials and Organics

Manoj B. Gawande,* Sharad Shelke, Radek Zbořil, and Rajender S. Varma*

Account of Chemical Research, 2014, 47, 1338−1348. (IF= 22.38); Citations- 507

15. Magnetic gold nanocatalyst (nanocat-Fe–Au): catalytic applications for the oxidative esterification and hydrogen transfer reactions

Manoj B. Gawande,* Anuj K. Rathi, Jiri Tucek, Klara Safarova, Nenad Bundaleski, Orlando M. N. D. Teodoro, Libor Kvitek, Rajender S. Varma, and Radek Zbořil*

Green Chemistry, 2014, 16, 4137-4143. (IF- 10.18); Citations- 68

Inside Front cover- http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2014/gc/c4gc00774c.

Research

Our research interests includes:

Highlights of our research activities:

Key Publications:

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