Santanu Sarkar, a UCR chemistry graduate student in the group of Prof. Robert Haddon, has been named as one of the finalists for the highly prestigious international Reaxys PhD Prize for 2013. He has been invited to attend and present his work at the Reaxys PhD Prize Symposium and Poster Session which will be held at the inaugural Reaxys Inspiring Chemistry Conference, Grindelwald, Switzerland, September 22 - 24, 2013.
The Reaxys PhD Prize is an international chemistry Prize for the new generation of bright young researchers to promote innovative research and build a network of future leading chemist researchers – the prize is open to Chemistry PhD candidates worldwide and attracted more than 580 applicants in 2013. Candidates were reviewed by a board of leading international chemists and judged for originality, innovation, importance to the field, applicability, rigor of approach and publication quality.
Santanu discovered that graphene is an ideal substrate for the Diels-Alder reaction and exhibited a dual chemical nature which allowed it to function as both diene and dienophile. The importance of this finding allowed Santanu to be recognized as a finalist in the Reaxys PhD Prize competition; the work has published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society
(doi: 10.1021/ja200118b).
The work extends the concepts of classical frontier molecular orbital (FMO) theory and the Woodward-Hoffmann principles of orbital symmetry from organic small molecule chemistry to solid-state organic materials, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes which possess extended periodic p-electron systems.
The device-compatible nature of the Diels-Alder chemistry may find application in the reversible band gap engineering of graphene. These reactions may also find use in producing bulk quantities of solution-processable graphene for applications in fields such as printed electronics, transparent conductors, nano-biodevices, and thin film technologies involving fuel cells, capacitors and solar cells.
“Santanu displayed a keen interest in developing and pursuing his own original ideas and because of his talents I allowed him considerable leeway in choosing his research topics”, said Prof. Haddon, the Director of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering, UC-Riverside. “Santanu Sarkar is a creative, intelligent, energetic and self-motivated individual with strong problem solving skills and is highly deserving of the Reaxsys PhD Award”, he added in his Reaxy Prize nomination letter.
More details in: http://inspiringchemistry.reaxys.com/phdprize
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