I N N Namboothiri
IIT, Mumbai
I N N Namboothiri is currently a Senior Professor at the Department of Chemistry, IIT Bombay. He received his MSc from Mangalore University and PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He carried out postdoctoral research at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, the University of North Texas and Columbia University, NY, before joining IIT Bombay in 2001. His research interests include organic synthesis, development of new synthetic methodologies, asymmetric catalysis, mechanistic studies, and materials chemistry. He is a recipient of the Jean D'Alembert Senior Fellowship, Paris-Saclay University, France, the Chemical Research Society of India Medal, and the Departmental Excellence in Teaching Award at IIT Bombay. He has supervised 26 PhDs and co-authored over 190 publications (h-index 47), including four chapters and two books and is also jointly involved in 6 patents. He is an elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (2020) and National Academy of Sciences (India).
SESSION 3B - Lectures by Fellows/Associates
Praveen Chaddah, Gurugram
Functionalized polycyclic cage compounds as prospective high energy density materials
Highly strained polycyclic cage compounds have attracted the imagination of theoretical, synthetic and medicinal chemists as well as materials scientists. The enormously rigid and compact, yet thermally stable, cage-like structures are potential powerhouses in a volume-limited environment. Besides the rigid polycyclic skeleton, functional groups such as nitro, azido, nitrito, and polynitrogen-containing heterocycles enhance the energetic properties of such compounds. Preliminary theoretical evaluation of the molecular geometry, enthalpy of formation and a specific impulse of model systems encouraged us to synthesize several functionalized cage compounds possessing bis-homocubyl, homocubyl and cubyl skeletons starting from readily available dicyclopentadiene or cyclopentanone in a minimum number of steps. Details of synthesis, characterization and possible applications as energetic materials will be presented.