Thesis and Guide details:
Details of CSIR Fellowship/ Associateship held, if any or from other sources/ agencies.
Significant foreign assignments:
(a) Significant contributions to science and/ or technology development by the nominee
based on the work done in India during most part of last 5 years:
Dr. Partha Sarathi Mukherjee has been working at Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
since July, 2005. Currently he is holding a position of Professor in the department of
Inorganic and Physical Chemistry at the institute. Dr. Mukherjee has made major and
outstanding contributions to coordination-driven self-assembly. Self-selection and selfrecognition
all hallmarks of biological self-assembly have been thoroughly studied by his
research group in abiological self-assembly. He has also shown how entities within
multicomponent systems interact and influence each other and how the outcome of
these processes can be altered by both external stimuli such as temperature,
concentration, etc (Inorg. Chem. 2009, 48, 2605; Chem. Eur. J. 2012, 3199; Chem.
Commun. 2012, 2298; Angew Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 8455; Inorg. Chem. 2010, 49,
7647). His group is the first to observe the self-sorting phenomenon in covalent cage
formation (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 554). This unique observation has opened up
a new area to explore for selective formation of desired organic self-assembled large
molecules from complex reaction mixture. His research has also established that such
unusual self-sorting in purely organic cage formation can be nicely controlled by proper
functionalization of the building components. Such self-sorting was further utilized
successfully for cage-to-cage transformation in very facile manner (Chem. Eur. J. 2014,
20, 1646).
Determined to go beyond the synthesis of new molecular architectures, Partha
embarked upon applying such assemblies for practical applications. Employing
directional self-assembly, Mukherjee‟s group has recently developed several water
soluble discrete Pd(II) molecular architectures with hydrophobic pockets and used them
as molecular vessels for catalytic organic transformations in the confined nanospace of
such architectures in aqueous medium (Chem. Eur. J. 2012, 12322; Chem.Commun.
2013, 4307). Very recently, his group is the first to report Pd (II) cage as heterogeneous
catalyst for performing Michael reactions in aqueous medium (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 1668) using a series of water insoluble reactants. Mukherjee‟s group has also
decorated several discrete organic cages with suitable functional groups for the
nucleation of tiny metal nanoparticles in confined space of cages and used such cage
supported nanoparticles for organic transformations (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138,
1709).
Several recent unfortunate events in some South Asian countries startled everyone
from politicians to the researchers and detection of explosives has become a high
priority defense enterprise. He has pioneered the use of coordination-driven selfassembly
for the preparation of electron rich fluorescent cages and their use as
potential selective sensors for the detection of solution/vapour of explosive
nitroaromatics (Organometallics, 2008, 27, 316; Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 12137;
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 13321). He has developed a completely new concept of
introducing H-bond bond as driving force for the dramatic enhancement of sensitivity of
such electron rich sensors (Chem.Commun. 2011, 47, 10046). This new idea gave the
birth of new generation supramolecular materials for sensing explosives (Chem. Eur. J.
2014, 13662). He is also having remarkable contributions on polynuclear magnetic
materials and single molecule magnets (Acc. Chem. Res. 2013, 2566).
Dr. Mukherjee is creative, very active and productive scientist. He is at one of the very
best scientific institutions in India and the combination of his creativity and talent make
him very visible.
(b) Impact of the contributions in the field concerned:
From the work done so far from IISc has produced Ph.D. degree of nine students.
Moreover, several MS students and postdocs have been trained. Several fundamental
issues like self-sorting, self-selection have been addressed in coordination-driven selfassembly
as well as in covalent assembly. Mukherjee‟s work has also provided a new
concept that exciton migration is possible through weak H-bonds to enhance sensitivity
of a sensor dramatically. This new concept has huge impact in designing ultra-sensitive
suitable supramolecular sensors for different analytes. His work on catalytic organic
transformations in confined nanospace of molecular architectures has huge impact in
chemical synthesis.
Places where work of last 5 years has been referred/ cited in Books, Reviews:
Names of the industries in which the technology (ies) has (have) been used :
The achievements already been recognised by Awards by any learned body:
The Awardee a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy/Indian Academy of Sciences/National
Academy of Sciences/Others:
The Awardee delivered invited lecture(s) in India/abroad and/or chaired any scientific
Internatiional Conference Symposium:
List of Awardee's 10 most significant publications.
List of Awardee's 5 most significant publications during the last 5 years
List of Awardee's 5 most significant publications from out of work done in India
during the last five years:
Complete list of publications in standard refereed journals:
Complete list of publications with foreign collaborators (indicating your status
as author):
List of papers published in Conferences /Symposia/ Seminars, etc:
List of the most outstanding Technical Reports/ Review Articles:
Statement regarding collaboration with scientists abroad:
Total number of patents granted in last five years.
Details of Books published: