Welcome to Polshettiwar's NanoCat Group
Innovations are mostly inspired by scientific research and catalysis is becoming a strategic field of science since it represents a new way to meet the challenges of energy and sustainability. These challenges are becoming the main concerns of the global vision of the societal challenges and world economy. Catalysis research became one of the most powerful tools in the pharmaceutical, petrochemical and fine-chemical industries.
One of the most stimulating features of nanotechnology is its potential use in almost any field. The discovery of nanoparticles (NPs) with varied size, shape and composition has stretched the limits of technology in ways that scientists would never have dreamt of a century ago. Nature makes and chemistry re-shapes; huge varieties of nanoparticles have emerged in our daily life, in every field from drugs and electronics to paints and beauty care, and they are now emerging in the field of catalysis.
The field of nanocatalysis (which involves a substance or material with catalytic properties that possesses at least one nanoscale dimension, either externally or in terms of internal structures) is undergoing an explosive development. Nanocatalysis can help design catalysts with excellent activity, greater selectivity, and high stability. Their properties can easily be tuned by tailoring the size, shape, and morphology of the particular nanomaterial.
In the nano-catalysis (KAUST NanoCat) laboratory, we are designing and synthesizing various nano-materials with specific shapes, sizes and morphologies and then evaluating their use as a nano-catalysts for the development of sustainable protocols for various challenging reactions like C-H activation, C-C coupling, oxidation, metathesis, hydrogenolysis, hydrogenation, CO2 capture and conversion to fine chemicals, biofuels upgrading, photocatalysis and environmental remediation.
Prof. Polshettiwar's Nano-Catalysis (NanoCat) Laboratory is part of KAUST’s Chemical and Life Sciences & Engineering (CLSE) Division and integrated into the KAUST Catalysis Center (KCC).