Supramolecular and Life-Like Systems Lab
Department of Chemical Sciences
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Berhampur
Odisha, India
Life-Like Soft Materials and Systems
Most synthetic materials are designed to exist in a stable state and perform a predefined function. More advanced materials can incorporate responsive components that allow their properties or functions to be switched between different states in response to external stimuli. Living systems, however, operate on fundamentally different principles. They display autonomous and adaptive behaviour, communicate with their surroundings, process information, and generate emergent responses through continuously operating networks of chemical reactions. A central question in materials science is therefore how these characteristics of living systems can be understood and translated into synthetic materials. Living systems achieve such complex behaviour through interconnected metabolic and signalling reaction networks that operate far from equilibrium, continuously consume energy, and regulate molecular and supramolecular processes across multiple length and time scales. In this research programme, we aim to uncover and implement the fundamental principles underlying such reaction networks. In particular, we will develop redox-driven and enzyme-mediated chemical reaction networks and integrate them with soft polymeric and self-assembled materials. Our goal is to create synthetic systems capable of life-like functions such as autonomous operation, adaptation, communication, temporal regulation, and emergent behaviour.
Functional Organic Materials via Supramolecular
Polymerization
Supramolecular polymers are the non-covalent counterparts of conventional covalent polymers, in which monomeric units are connected through reversible non-covalent interactions. Over the past two decades, research has revealed remarkable similarities between supramolecular and covalent polymers in their mechanisms of formation, structural organization, and macroscopic behaviour. At the same time, the reversible nature of non-covalent interactions provides supramolecular polymers with unique dynamic, adaptive, and stimuli-responsive properties. Despite these advances, achieving the level of structural precision routinely accessible in covalent polymer chemistry—particularly in terms of morphology, topology, sequence, and dispersity—remains challenging because of the highly dynamic nature of supramolecular assemblies. In this context, the bottom-up self-assembly of π-conjugated molecules through supramolecular polymerization offers exciting opportunities for the programmable fabrication of functional organic materials. Our research aims to understand how molecular-level supramolecular engineering can be used to control the structure, morphology, topology, and dispersity of supramolecular polymers. We seek to establish fundamental structure–assembly–function relationships and use this understanding to develop advanced supramolecular materials with tailored optical, electronic, and catalytic properties.
Research Mission and DirectionsÂ