This article is about my work and experience gained from my summer internship project. Internships are a great way to do actual research in field which one perhaps wishes to pursue, learn a lot about that field, and enjoy, as they provide the opportunity to go out of one’s institute and be exposed to different scholars and eminent people in that area of research. These internships give you the best practical experience and hands-on training, which are actually necessary for a student at the graduate level. Such experiences not only improve your knowledge in that particular field, but are also quite helpful in developing effective communication skills and troubleshooting abilities.

I have completed my internship project at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) which is one of the premier research and teaching institutes of India. I had an opportunity to work under the supervision of Prof. Rabindra Nath Mukherjee, an emeritus and well known inorganic chemist in India, from their department of chemistry. He was also the former director of another national institute, IISER Kolkata. Prof. Mukherjee’s research group has been focusing on several aspects of coordination chemistry and bio-inorganic chemistry of various transition metals. This group has also been working on the design of new organic ligands and their use as ligands in coordination chemistry. I was very fortunate to get an opportunity to work in such an innovative area. I joined IIT Kanpur for doing research work in the department of chemistry as a Non-Degree student and registered for zero credits during my eight-week project starting from 14th May, 2019 to 6th July, 2019.

The main objective of the project was to synthesize new metal-peroxo complexes consisting of bi- and tetra- dentate ligands that might reveal novel avenues in the field of bioinorganic chemistry. It has been well established that the metal-peroxo complex species play a vital role in the oxidative transformation of organic substrates mediated by metallo-enzymes. Oxidation reactions of organic substrates mediated by transition metal–O2 species are of great research interest in bio-inorganic chemistry.

I first started to synthesize a unique complex, namely, chromium(VI) oxo- diperoxo- complex [(L)CrVI(O) (O2 )2 ], which is new in its own kind. This complex was prepared in moderate yield, and was completely characterized by various spectroscopic techniques. The solid state molecular structure of this complex (shown in the fig.1) displayed the coordination of bi-dentate N,N-ligand to the chromium center which is further coordinated with oxo and peroxo units. The overall geometry around the metal (Cr) center can be described as having the pentagonal bipyramidal structure. During the synthesis process of the above complexes, the reaction intermediates and products appeared to be strongly dependent on the pH and temperature of the reaction mixture solutions. We presumed that due to an apparent sensitivity towards these two factors, new complexes with different, yet similar N,N-chelating ligands could not be isolated. Even after several efforts, we were unable to produce crystals suitable for X-ray diffraction analysis. It can be noted that the above mentioned complexes have applications in various chemical industries and biological systems. They can be employed as oxidants in bio-organic synthesis. Furthermore, owing to the unstable nature of peroxo intermediates, they can get oxidized to yield many compounds present in biological systems, and thus can be of great help in understanding the mechanism of various biological cycles.

In addition to the laboratory work, I have also gained some basic knowledge on various characterization techniques performed using advanced, state of the art instrumentation facilities. For instance, I was taught and trained to operate an IR spectrometer and also the whole manual process of setting up an anaerobic reaction in a glove box (inert atmosphere). These experiences will surely help for future phases of research work. In conclusion, the field of work I worked in during this short structured internship programme is one of the promising areas of research work within the domain of inorganic chemistry, and is gradually rising. Future explorations of this area may focus on the development of stable high-valent chromium complexes; for example Cr(VI) oxo- diperoxo-, side-on peroxo- and superoxo- complexes which can be synthetically achieved by modifying the ligand framework and reaction conditions. These metal complexes may serve as new model complexes in several situations, such as in bio-inorganic systems.

I sincerely hope that experience gained in this program will help me in my future research career. I would like to use this opportunity in thanking the department of chemistry, IIT Kanpur, for generously allowing me in using the laboratory and instrumentation facilities, furthermore, the financial support by Inspire fellowship is greatly acknowledged