Rathore, Rajendra, Ph.D
Title: Associate Professor, Organic Chemistry
Phone: 414 288-2076
Email: rajendra.rathore@mu.edu

 

Biography
Professor Rathore received his M.Sc. in 1986 from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and his Ph.D. degree in Organic chemistry from University of Western Ontario, London, Canada in 1990. He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate (1992-97) and a Visiting Assistant Professor (1997-2000) at University of Houston before joining the faculty at Marquette University in August 2000. Professor Rathore's research interests are in the area of organic supramolecular chemistry/materials chemistry.

Research Fields (Click on here to visit group's home page)
My group's research is broadly defined as in the area of organic supramolecular and materials chemistry. We are interested in a variety of topics with a strong emphasis on the design and synthesis of novel electro-active molecules that can be utilized as practical molecular devices for the applications in the emerging field of nanotechnology as well as in biomaterial applications.

Graduate and undergraduate student and postdoctoral researchers in my group are exposed to a broad range of topics including synthetic organic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, electrochemistry, photochemistry, time-resolved laser spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography. The subject areas are briefly mentioned here and more can be learned by visiting my group's home page.

The research in our group lies at the interface of synthetic organic chemistry, molecular recognition, material science, solid state electronics, and biology with the ultimate aim of studying and exploiting new organic molecules and materials that can be used as molecular devices, such as sensors, switches, wires, ferromagnets, semiconductors, and other electronic and optoelectronic devices. To fulfill this task, we utilize intra- and inter-molecular interactions that are present in supramolecular and macrocyclic assemblies containing multiple redox-active chromophores for the construction of higher-order organic materials. Ultimately, a fundamental understanding of weak interactions among molecules and ions (i.e. molecular recognition) encompasses all of these issues, and has wide ranging implications from areas as diverse as molecular machines to solar energy storage.

As an example, we have recently shown that systematic study of the interaction of cofacial receptors (in which the aryl moieties are oriented at varying angles) with gaseous nitric oxide (NO)-an important biological messenger, led to the development of remarkably efficient receptors for NO (K_NO > 10⁸ M^-1), see Figure below. We are presently exploiting this remarkably efficient binding of NO with stilbenoid and calixarene receptors to develop functional molecular sensors for nitric oxide.

Selected Publications

• 1.“Duplexiphane: A Polyaromatic Receptor Containing two Adjoined D-shaped Cavities for an Efficient Hopping of a Single Silver Cation”, S.J. Emond, P. Debroy, R. Rathore Org. Lett.  2008, 10, 389-392.

• 2. “Preparation of a Polymer-Supported Fluorene-Based Receptor for Quantitative and Efficient Binding of Silver Cations” V.J. Chebny, M. Banerjee, R. Rathore Chem. Eur. J. 2007, 13, 6508-6513.

•  3.“Binding of Acetonitrile via a Synergy of C-H···O/C-H···p Interactions within the Ethereal Cavity of a Hexaarylbenzene-Based Receptor”, R. Shukla, S.V. Lindeman, R. Rathore Chem. Comm. 2007, 3717-3719.

•  4.“Aromatic Propellane: A Helical Molecular Platform for the Construction of Electro-Active Materials”, P. Debroy, S.V. Lindeman, R. Rathore Org. Lett. 2007, 9, 4091-4094.

•  5.“Electron-Transfer Prompted Ejection of a Tightly-Held Potassium Cation from the Ethereal Cavity of a Hexaarylbenzene-Based Receptor”, R. Shukla, S.V. Lindeman, R. Rathore Org. Lett. 2007, 9, 1291-1294.

•  6.“Structural Characterization of Quaterphenyl Cation Radical:  X-ray Crystallographic Evidence of Quinoidal Charge Delocalization in Poly-p-phenylene (PPP) Cation Radicals”, M. Banerjee, S.V. Lindeman, R. Rathore J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 8070-8071.

•  7.“A Convergent Synthesis of Alternating Fluorene-p-Xylene Oligomers and Delineation of the (Silver) Cation-Induced Folding”, V.J. Chebny, R. Rathore J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 8458-8465.

•  8.“A Polyaromatic Receptor with an Ethereal fence that Directs K+ for Effective Cation-p Interaction”, R. Shukla, S.V. Lindeman, R. Rathore J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 5328-5329.

• 9.“Electron-Transfer Induced Conformational Switch from an Extended to a p-Stacked Conformer in Acyclic Bis-Catechol Acetals of Acetalacetone”, R. Rathore, V.J. Chebny,  E.J. Kopatz, I.A. Guzei, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.  2005, 44, 2771-2774.

• 10.“Synthesis of a Calix[4]arene Derivative for Isolation of a Stable Cation-Radial Salt for use as a Colorimetric Sensors of Nitric Oxide”, R. Rathore, S. H. Abdelwahed, I. A. Guzei J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 13582-13583.

• 11.“Synthesis, Structure, and Evaluation of the Effect of Multiple Stacking on the Electron-Donor Properties of p-Stacked Polyfluorenes.” R. Rathore, S.H. Abdelwhaed, I.A. Guezi J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125 (29), 8712-8713.

   

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