Date: February 02, 2026
Time: 05:30 PM
Venue: Lecture Hall 1003, Block 7, IISER Berhampur
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‘Molecular tools for manipulating the size, size distribution and alloy formation in metal nanoparticle systems’
The transformation of the inert noble metals into functional materials not only involves their size reduction to nanometer scale but also their surface functionalization with appropriate molecules. Such surface functionalization assumes significance not just for their stability in diverse solvent media but defines the way nanoparticles (NPs) interact either with themselves or with the environment/biological systems. In general, organic molecules/ligands which have at least one functional group are known to stabilize NPs against aggregation. Apart from this, ligands also play a key role in modulating many characteristics of NPs viz. controlling their size, morphology and their dispersional stability in a given solvent medium. This talk briefly reviews these aspects. In particular we will introduce “Digestive Ripening” (DR), a post-synthetic size modification process as a reliable and reproducible method offering great control over size and size distribution of NPs. DR is known for converting a polydisperse NP system, post synthesis to nearly monodisperse NPs with the help of surface active organic molecules/ligands.
Prof. Bhagavatula L. V. Prasad - Professor Bhagavatula L. V. Prasad, FASc, FRSC, is a distinguished Indian materials chemist and nanoscience researcher, currently serving as Director of the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru (a DST–Government of India autonomous research institute) and Senior Principal Scientist in the Physical/Materials Chemistry Division at CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune. He completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Hyderabad and carried out post-doctoral research at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (under a JSPS fellowship) and at Kansas State University, USA. Since joining CSIR-NCL in 2003, Prof. Prasad has led research on the synthesis and controlled assembly of nanoparticles and nanoscale materials, including two-dimensional materials, molecular self-assemblies and functional nanostructures, resulting in over 125 peer-reviewed publications and multiple international patents. His work has been recognised with major honours including the C. N. R. Rao National Prize for Chemical Research (CRSI) and election as a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (London). He also serves as Chief Editor of Bulletin of Materials Science and has delivered invited lectures worldwide.
