SSCU Ph. D. Thesis Colloquium
Name: Mrs. Shreya Sasmal
Research Supervisor: Prof. S. Natarajan and Dr. C. Shivakumara
Title: Synthesis, Structure, and Properties of Compounds Derived from Inorganic Mineral Structures
Date &Time: Friday, 13th March 2026 at 11:00 a.m.
Venue: Rajarshi Bhattacharya Memorial Lecture Hall, Chemical Sciences Building
Abstract:
In the field of inorganic materials chemistry, a wide variety of compounds belonging to structures based on rock salt, spinel, corundum, perovskite, garnet, pyrochlore, etc. have highly adaptable structures, and their properties can easily be modified by suitable substitutions at various positions in the framework structure.1-2 However, there is a large family of compounds belonging to naturally occurring minerals that remain underexplored in terms of their physical and chemical properties. The main difficulty in studying these compounds is in synthesising them under laboratory conditions. Stabilizing the mineral structures under laboratory conditions provide many possibilities to explore newer structures and properties.3 The present study is motivated by the opportunity to explore the compounds that belong to the mineral structures, which would exhibit interesting physical and chemical properties.
This thesis is the result of the investigations on the synthesis, structures and the properties of mixed metal oxide compounds mostly derived from the mineral structures. This includes kotoites A2MB2O6 (A = Sr, Pb, Zn, Ba, Pb; M = Pb, Ba, Zn, Cu)4-5 and telluro-phosphate A2Zn3-xMxTe2X2O14 (A = Sr, Ba, Ca; M = Co, Ni, Cu, Mg; X = P,V),6 A3Zn1-xMxB5XO14 (A = Ba, Pb, Sr; M = Co, Ni, Cu, Mg; X = P, V),7 and A2Zn2-xMxTeX2O11 (A = Ba, Ca, Pb; M = Co, Ni, Cu, Mg; X = P, V)8 compounds. We have prepared series of new compounds that emerge from many design strategies such as substitution of suitable cations, controlled reaction conditions, etc. The synthesized compounds were explored towards many properties in the areas of pigments (colored compounds), near-infrared (NIR) reflecting behaviour, Raman studies, magnetic and dielectric studies, photocatalytic activities, luminescence behaviours (color tunable and white light emissions) and sensing studies.
References:
1) A.K. Cheetham, R. Seshadri, F. Wudl, Chemical Synthesis and Materials Discovery. Nat. Synth., 2022, 1 (7), 514–520.
2) H.A. Evans, Y. Wu, R. Seshadri, A.K. Cheetham, Perovskite-Related ReO3-Type Structures. Nat Rev Mater., 2020, 5 (3), 196–213.
3) Z. Xia, K.R. Poeppelmeier, Chemistry-Inspired Adaptable Framework Structures. Acc Chem Res., 2017, 50 (5), 1222–1230.
4) S. Sasmal, N. Devarajan, S. Natarajan, Synthesis, Structure and Properties of Compounds Derived from Kotoite-related Structures: A2MB2O6 (A=Zn, Ba, Pb; M=Pb, Ba, Zn, Cu), Chem. Asian. J., 2025, 20, e202400868, 1-11
5) S. Sasmal, G. Dey, S. Sampath, S. Natarajan, Exploring Sr2MgB2O6 towards new colored compounds and as an electrocatalyst for Nitrogen Reduction Reaction (Manuscript in preparation)
6) S. Sasmal, S. Natarajan, Sr2Zn3Te2P2O14 as a host for New Coloured compounds and tuneable white light emission, Chem. Asian. J., 2025, 20, e202500500, 1-14
7) S. Sasmal, Ba3ZnB5PO14 as a multifunctional host for New Coloured Compounds, White-Light Emission and Turn-Off Luminescence Sensing, Chem. Asian. J., 2025, 20, e70442, 1-14
8) S. Sasmal, Dual-Functional Phosphors Based on Ba2Zn2TeP2O11: White-Light Emission and Luminescence Quenching Sensors, Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2025, 20, e202500536, 1-16
