• Micellar/Bio-Micellar catalysis
• Green & sustainable Chemistry
• Organometallic/Nanocatalysis

We are a young interdisciplinary research group working on green and sustainable catalysis. The long-term goal of green and sustainable chemistry is not only the modification of existing chemical process, but the current requirement is also decreasing the waste generation through innovation, not just modification. Micellar catalysis is an enabler to perform chemistry in water under very mild conditions thus mimicking Nature. Therefore, we are interested to innovate new micelles or catalysts (nanocatalysts or organometallic) to perform chemistry in water and detail mechanistic investigation. We are also interested to bridging the gap between micellar catalysis with bio-catalysis for useful chemical transformations. We are also keen to explore heterometallic metal-metal or metal-micelles synergistic effect and their application in multicomponent reactions in water. The research based on micellar catalysis/nano catalysis involves extensive synthesis and characterization of catalysts and products using various spectroscopic and imaging techniques.

Representative Publications

• Water: An Underestimated Solvent for Amide Bond-Forming reactions.
  Hazra, S.; Gallou, F.; Handa. S
  ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2022, 10, 5299-5306.
   
• The Resurrection of Murahashi Coupling after Four Decades.
  Hazra, S.; Seechurn. C. C. J.; Handa, S.; Colacot, Thomas J.
  ACS Catal. 2021, 11, 13188–13202.
   
• Reactivity of Styrenes in Micelles: Safe, Selective, and Sustainable Functionalization with Azides and Carboxylic Acids.
  Hazra, S.; Kaur, G.; Handa, S
  ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2021, 9, 5513-5518.
   
• NaCl as Catalyst and Water as Solvent: Highly E-Selective Olefination of Methyl Substituted N-Heteroarenes with Benzyl Amines and Alcohols.
  Hazra, S.; Vikas, Elias, A. J.
  Org. Lett. 2020, 22, 5496–5501.
   
• Table salt as a catalyst for the oxidation of aromatic alcohols and amines to acids and imines in aqueous medium: effectively carrying out oxidation reactions in sea water.
  Hazra, S.; Kushawaha, A. K.; Yadav, D.; Douli, P.; Deb, M.; Elias. A. J.
  Green Chem., 2019, 21, 1929-1934.
   
• Aerobic oxidation of primary amines to imines in water using a cobalt complex as recyclable catalyst under mild conditions.
  Hazra, S.; Pilania, P.; Deb, M.; Kushawaha, A. K.; Elias, A. J.
  Chem. Eur. J. (Hot Paper) 2018, 24, 15766-15771.
   
• Iodine catalyzed oxidation of alcohols and aldehydes to carboxylic acids in water: a metal free route to the synthesis of furandicarboxylic acid and terephthalic acid.
  Hazra, S.; Deb, M.; Elias, A. J
  Green Chem. 2017, 19, 5548-5552.