Sonam Mehrotra

Department of Chemistry

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Kanpur-208016

Uttar Pradesh, India

+919919955187 (Mob.)

sonammeh@iitk.ac.in, sonucool014@gmail.com

Education

Ph.D. (CPI: 9.3) Dec, 2011-Present

Thesis of Title: “Sequestration and Activation of Environmentally Detrimental

molecules Using Bioinspired Weak Interactions”

Thesis Advisor: Dr. Raja Angamuthu

Department of Chemistry

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India

M.Phil. 2008-2009

Thesis of Title: “Preparation and characterization of Nano Materials of Spinel Cobaltite”

Thesis Advisor: Dr. Jai Prakash Singh

Department of Chemistry

University of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

First Division with 71%

Master of Science (Chemistry) 2006-2008

Department of Chemistry

University of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

First Division with 64%

Bachelors of Science (Chemistry and Zoology) 2003-2006

University of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

First Division with 72%

Research Interest

Sequestration and activation of environmentally detrimental molecules using

weak interactions which should be strong enough to capture guest molecules and

weak enough to release.

My recent interest beholds in the self-assembly of small organic molecules

through supramolecular interactions which can find applications in gas

adsorption/storage/separation, encapsulation of toxic molecules, proton

conduction and catalysis.

Research & Teaching Assistance

Co-guided three students for their Master / M.Tech./ Undergraduate project

1. Estak Ahmed

Thesis Title: Triazine Based Compounds for SO2 Binding

2. Raja Lakshmi

Thesis Title: Zinc Thiolate Complexes Towards SO2 Binding

3. Ankit Jain

Thesis Title: Pushing the Limits of Piedfort Diads Towards Small Molecule

Encapsulation

4. Anant Jain

Thesis Title: Pushing the Limits of Piedfort Diads: Sequestration of

environmentally detrimental molecules

Teaching Assistant in CHM 101 Lab (B.Tech. and Integrated MSc. Program), July –

December 2014, Department of Chemistry, IIT Kanpur

Teaching Assistant in CHM 102 (Basic Inorganic Chemistry Course for B.Tech. and

Integrated MSc. Program), January – April 2015, Department of Chemistry, IIT

Kanpur

Publications

1. Janus head type lone pair–π–lone pair and S···F···S interactions in retaining

hexafluorobenzene

Sonam Mehrotra and Raja Angamuthu CrystEngComm, 2016, 18, 4438-4444.

2. Benzothiazoline Converts SO2 to Sulfuric Acid en Route to Benzothiazole

Sonam Mehrotra, Ray J. Butcher and Raja Angamuthu ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

2016, 4, 6517–6523.

3. Benzimidazolines convert SO2 to bisulfate at ambient conditions

Sonam Mehrotra and Raja Angamuthu manuscript under preparation

4. Pushing the limits of Piedfort Dimers

Sonam Mehrotra and Raja Angamuthu manuscript under preparation

5. Triazine based parking lots for environmentally detrimental molecules

Sonam Mehrotra and Raja Angamuthu manuscript under preparation

Oral/Poster Presentation in Conference

1. Indo-German Conference on Bio-Inspired Chemistry (IGCBIC-2014), Indian

Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, September 2014

2. An International Symposium on Recent Advances in Chemistry (REACH-2015),

North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India, March 2015

3. International Conference on Multifunctional Materials for Future Applications

(ICMFA-2015), Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU),

India, October 2015

4. International Symposium on Modern Trends in Inorganic Chemistry –XVI (MTIC-

XVI), Jadavpur University, Jadavpur, Kolkata, India, December 2015

5. 11th J-NOST Conference for Research Scholars (J-NOST-2015), School of Science,

NISER, Bhubaneswar, India, December 2015

Awards

Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) by University Grant Commission (UGC), India

(2013-2016)

Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) by University Grant Commission (UGC), India

(2011-2013)

Skills/Softwares

Synthesis of Organic/Inorganic ligands and their corresponding metal complexes.

Liquification of SO2 gas using chiller (-20 °C) and capturing toxic molecules

through slow evaporation and layering methods

Characterization via 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, ESI-MS, CHN analysis, FTIR, TGA

Gained expertise in solving crystal structures through X-ray diffraction

Handling the Schlenk line technique

Separation and purification of organic compounds by preparative TLC, column

chromatography

X-ray software: SHELXTL, Wingx

NMR spectroscopy (MNOVA)

Chem-draw, MS-office, Windows and several other calculations (ORIGIN software)

and visualization

References

1. Dr. Raja Angamuthu

Department of Chemistry

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Kanpur 208016, UP, India

+91-512-259 6786

raja@iitk.ac.in

2. Dr. Anand Singh

Department of Chemistry

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Kanpur 208016, UP. India

+91-512-259 6788

anands@iitk.ac.in