Abhijit Nayek

@iacs.res.in

Senior Research Fellow, School of Chemical Sciences
Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science

Abhijit Nayek


                     Download Compact PDF  
https://researchid.co/abhijitrkm10

RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS

Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Electrochemistry, Spectroscopy
14

Scopus Publications

413

Scholar Citations

9

Scholar h-index

9

Scholar i10-index

Scopus Publications

  • Hydrogen Oxidation by Bioinspired Models of [FeFe]-Hydrogenase
    Abhijit Nayek, Rabin Kumar Poria, Md Estak Ahmed, Suman Patra, Somdatta Ghosh Dey, et al.
    ACS Organic and Inorganic Au, 2025
  • Second sphere control of CO2 reduction selectivity by iron porphyrins: The role of spin state
    Suman Patra, Soumili Ghosh, Soumya Samanta, Abhijit Nayek, Abhishek Dey
    Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, 2025
  • Amplifying Reactivity of Bio-Inspired [FeFe]-Hydrogenase Mimics by Organic Nanotubes
    Md Estak Ahmed, Puspendu Das, Sk Mustak Ahamed, Samir Chattopadhyay, Abhijit Nayek, et al.
    Chemistry A European Journal, 2024
    A bio‐inspired FeFe hydrogenase model which catalyses hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acidic solutions is immobilized in polyaniline (PANI)‐based nanotubes. A combination of analytical techniques reveals that this construct maintains both the molecular signatures of the bio‐inspired complex and the material properties of PANI. The amine and imine‐rich environment of the PANI chain amplifies the inherent HER activity of the bio‐inspired complex, allowing electrocatalytic HER at neutral pH, with lower overpotentials and higher current densities compared to the bio‐inspired complex alone. This construct retains the oxygen stability of the bio‐inspired complex and remains stable through several hours of aerobic electrolysis, producing only 6.5 % H₂O₂ from the competing oxygen reduction reaction (ORR).
  • Phenoxide coordination to Fe(III) tetraphenylporphyrin: Exploring antibacterial and electrocatalytic HER activity
    Moumita Patra, Tarun Kumar Das, Arijit Saha, Tania Das, Arpita Patra, et al.
    Inorganica Chimica Acta, 2024
  • Low Potential CO2 Reduction by Inert Fe(II)-Macrobicyclic Complex: A New Concept of Cavity Assisted CO2 Activation
    Piyali Sarkar, Sayan Sarkar, Abhijit Nayek, Nayarassery N. Adarsh, Arun K. Pal, et al.
    Small, 2024
    The advantage of a pre‐organized π‐cavity of Fe(II) complex of a newly developed macrobicycle cryptand is explored for CO2 reduction by overcoming the problem of high overpotential associated with the inert nature of the cryptate. Thus, a bipyridine‐centered tritopic macrobicycle having a molecular π‐cavity capable of forming Fe(II) complex as well as potential for CO2 encapsulation is synthesized. The inert Fe(II)‐cryptate shows much lower potential in cyclic voltammetry than the Fe(II)‐tris‐dimethylbipyridine (Fe‐MBP) core. Interestingly, this cryptate shows electrochemical CO2 reduction at a considerably lower potential than the Fe‐MBP inert core. Therefore, this study represents that a well‐structured π‐cavity may generate a new series of molecular catalysts for the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR), even with the inert metal complexes.
  • Facile electrocatalytic proton reduction by a [Fe-Fe]-hydrogenase bio-inspired synthetic model bearing a terminal CN− ligand
    Abhijit Nayek, Subal Dey, Suman Patra, Atanu Rana, Pauline N. Serrano, et al.
    Chemical Science, 2024
    An azadithiolate bridged CN− bound pentacarbonyl bis-iron complex, mimicking the active site of [Fe–Fe] H2ase is synthesized, which effectively reduces H+ to H2 between pH 0–3 at diffusion-controlled rates (1011 M−1 s−1) i.e. 108 s−1 at pH 3 with an overpotential of 140 mV.
  • Reduction of Sulfur Dioxide to Sulfur Monoxide by Ferrous Porphyrin**
    Aishik Bhattacharya, Arnab Kumar Nath, Arnab Ghatak, Abhijit Nayek, Souvik Dinda, et al.
    Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2023
    The reduction of SO2 to fixed forms of sulfur can address the growing concerns regarding its detrimental effect on health and the environment as well as enable its valorization into valuable chemicals. The naturally occurring heme enzyme sulfite reductase (SiR) is known to reduce SO2 to H2S and is an integral part of the global sulfur cycle. However, its action has not yet been mimicked in artificial systems outside of the protein matrix even after several decades of structural elucidation of the enzyme. While the coordination of SO2 to transition metals is documented, its reduction using molecular catalysts has remained elusive. Herein reduction of SO2 by iron(II) tetraphenylporphyrin is demonstrated. A combination of spectroscopic data backed up by theoretical calculations indicate that FeIITPP reduces SO2 by 2e−/2H+ to form an intermediate [FeIII−SO]+ species, also proposed for SiR, which releases SO. The SO obtained from the chemical reduction of SO2 could be evidenced in the form of a cheletropic adduct of butadiene resulting in an organic sulfoxide.
  • Second-Sphere Hydrogen-Bond Donors and Acceptors Affect the Rate and Selectivity of Electrochemical Oxygen Reduction by Iron Porphyrins Differently
    Arnab Ghatak, Soumya Samanta, Abhijit Nayek, Sudipta Mukherjee, Somdatta Ghosh Dey, et al.
    Inorganic Chemistry, 2022
    The factors that control the rate and selectivity of 4e-/4H+ O2 reduction are important for efficient energy transformation as well as for understanding the terminal step of respiration in aerobic organisms. Inspired by the design of naturally occurring enzymes which are efficient catalysts for O2 and H2O2 reduction, several artificial systems have been generated where different second-sphere residues have been installed to enhance the rate and efficiency of the 4e-/4H+ O2 reduction. These include hydrogen-bonding residues like amines, carboxylates, ethers, amides, phenols, etc. In some cases, improvements in the catalysis were recorded, whereas in some cases improvements were marginal or nonexistent. In this work, we use an iron porphyrin complex with pendant 1,10-phenanthroline residues which show a pH-dependent variation of the rate of the electrochemical O2 reduction reaction (ORR) over 2 orders of magnitude. In-situ surface-enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy reveals the presence of different intermediates at different pH's reflecting different rate-determining steps at different pH's. These data in conjunction with density functional theory calculations reveal that when the distal 1,10-phenanthroline is neutral it acts as a hydrogen-bond acceptor which stabilizes H2O (product) binding to the active FeII state and retards the reaction. However, when the 1,10-phenanthroline is protonated, it acts as a hydrogen-bond donor which enhances O2 reduction by stabilizing FeIII-O2.- and FeIII-OOH intermediates and activating the O-O bond for cleavage. On the basis of these data, general guidelines for controlling the different possible rate-determining steps in the complex multistep 4e-/4H+ ORR are developed and a bioinspired principle-based design of an efficient electrochemical ORR is presented.
  • Bioinorganic Chemistry on Electrodes: Methods to Functional Modeling
    Abhijit Nayek, Md Estak Ahmed, Soumya Samanta, Souvik Dinda, Suman Patra, et al.
    Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2022
    One of the major goals of bioinorganic chemistry has been to mimic the function of elegant metalloenzymes. Such functional modeling has been difficult to attain in solution, in particular, for reactions that require multiple protons and multiple electrons (nH+/ne-). Using a combination of heterogeneous electrochemistry, electrode and molecule design one may control both electron transfer (ET) and proton transfer (PT) of these nH+/ne- reactions. Such control can allow functional modeling of hydrogenases (H+ + e- → 1/2 H2), cytochrome c oxidase (O2 + 4 e- + 4 H+ → 2 H2O), monooxygenases (RR'CH2 + O2 + 2 e- + 2 H+ → RR'CHOH + H2O) and dioxygenases (S + O2 → SO2; S = organic substrate) in aqueous medium and at room temperatures. In addition, these heterogeneous constructs allow probing unnatural bioinspired reactions and estimation of the inner- and outer-sphere reorganization energy of small molecules and proteins.
  • A Bidirectional Bioinspired [FeFe]-Hydrogenase Model
    Md Estak Ahmed, Abhijit Nayek, Alenka Križan, Nathan Coutard, Adina Morozan, et al.
    Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2022
    With the price-competitiveness of solar and wind power, hydrogen technologies may be game changers for a cleaner, defossilized, and sustainable energy future. H2 can indeed be produced in electrolyzers from water, stored for long periods, and converted back into power, on demand, in fuel cells. The feasibility of the latter process critically depends on the discovery of cheap and efficient catalysts able to replace platinum group metals at the anode and cathode of fuel cells. Bioinspiration can be key for designing such alternative catalysts. Here we show that a novel class of iron-based catalysts inspired from the active site of [FeFe]-hydrogenase behave as unprecedented bidirectional electrocatalysts for interconverting H2 and protons efficiently under near-neutral aqueous conditions. Such bioinspired catalysts have been implemented at the anode of a functional membrane-less H2/O2 fuel cell device.
  • Biochemical and artificial pathways for the reduction of carbon dioxide, nitrite and the competing proton reduction: Effect of 2ndsphere interactions in catalysis
    Sk Amanullah, Paramita Saha, Abhijit Nayek, Md Estak Ahmed, Abhishek Dey
    Chemical Society Reviews, 2021
  • Oxygen Reduction by Iron Porphyrins with Covalently Attached Pendent Phenol and Quinol
    Asmita Singha, Arnab Mondal, Abhijit Nayek, Somdatta Ghosh Dey, Abhishek Dey
    Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2020
  • A single iron porphyrin shows ph dependent switch between "push" and "pull" effects in electrochemical oxygen reduction
    Sudipta Mukherjee, Abhijit Nayek, Sarmistha Bhunia, Somdatta Ghosh Dey, Abhishek Dey
    Inorganic Chemistry, 2020
  • Induction of Enzyme-like Peroxidase Activity in an Iron Porphyrin Complex Using Second Sphere Interactions
    Snehadri Bhakta, Abhijit Nayek, Bijan Roy, Abhishek Dey
    Inorganic Chemistry, 2019

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • Second sphere control of CO2 reduction selectivity by iron porphyrins: The role of spin state
    S Patra, S Ghosh, S Samanta, A Nayek, A Dey
    Journal of Organometallic Chemistry 1023, 123439 , 2025
    2025
    Citations: 10
  • Amplifying Reactivity of Bio‐Inspired [FeFe]‐Hydrogenase Mimics by Organic Nanotubes
    ME Ahmed, P Das, SM Ahamed, S Chattopadhyay, A Nayek, M Mondal, ...
    Chemistry–A European Journal 30 (68), e202403011 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 2
  • Hydrogen Oxidation by Bioinspired Models of [FeFe]-Hydrogenase
    A Nayek, RK Poria, ME Ahmed, S Patra, SG Dey, A Dey
    ACS Organic & Inorganic Au 5 (2), 105-116 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 2
  • Phenoxide coordination to Fe (III) tetraphenylporphyrin: Exploring antibacterial and electrocatalytic HER activity
    M Patra, TK Das, A Saha, T Das, A Patra, S Garai, A Nayek, UK Roy, ...
    Inorganica Chimica Acta 568, 122084 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 3
  • Low Potential CO 2 Reduction by Inert Fe(II)‐Macrobicyclic Complex: A New Concept of Cavity Assisted CO 2 Activation
    P Sarkar, S Sarkar, A Nayek, NN Adarsh, AK Pal, A Datta, A Dey, P Ghosh
    Small 20 (10), 2304794 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 4
  • Facile electrocatalytic proton reduction by a [Fe–Fe]-hydrogenase bio-inspired synthetic model bearing a terminal CN− ligand
    A Nayek, S Dey, S Patra, A Rana, PN Serrano, SJ George, SP Cramer, ...
    Chemical Science 15 (6), 2167-2180 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 13
  • Reduction of sulfur dioxide to sulfur monoxide by ferrous porphyrin
    A Bhattacharya, A Kumar Nath, A Ghatak, A Nayek, S Dinda, R Saha, ...
    Angewandte Chemie International Edition 62 (10), e202215235 , 2023
    2023
    Citations: 8
  • Second-Sphere Hydrogen-Bond Donors and Acceptors Affect the Rate and Selectivity of Electrochemical Oxygen Reduction by Iron Porphyrins Differently
    A Ghatak, S Samanta, A Nayek, S Mukherjee, SG Dey, A Dey
    Inorganic Chemistry 61 (33), 12931-12947 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 16
  • Bioinorganic chemistry on electrodes: methods to functional modeling
    A Nayek, ME Ahmed, S Samanta, S Dinda, S Patra, SG Dey, A Dey
    Journal of the American Chemical Society 144 (19), 8402-8429 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 10
  • A bidirectional bioinspired [FeFe]-hydrogenase model
    ME Ahmed, A Nayek, A Križan, N Coutard, A Morozan, S Ghosh Dey, ...
    Journal of the American Chemical Society 144 (8), 3614-3625 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 59
  • Biochemical and artificial pathways for the reduction of carbon dioxide, nitrite and the competing proton reduction: effect of 2 nd sphere interactions in catalysis
    S Amanullah, P Saha, A Nayek, ME Ahmed, A Dey
    Chemical Society Reviews 50 (6), 3755-3823 , 2021
    2021
    Citations: 160
  • Oxygen reduction by iron porphyrins with covalently attached pendent phenol and quinol
    A Singha, A Mondal, A Nayek, SG Dey, A Dey
    Journal of the American Chemical Society 142 (52), 21810-21828 , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 75
  • A single iron porphyrin shows pH dependent switch between “Push” and “Pull” effects in electrochemical oxygen reduction
    S Mukherjee, A Nayek, S Bhunia, SG Dey, A Dey
    Inorganic Chemistry 59 (19), 14564-14576 , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 20
  • Induction of enzyme-like peroxidase activity in an iron porphyrin complex using second sphere interactions
    S Bhakta, A Nayek, B Roy, A Dey
    Inorganic Chemistry 58 (5), 2954-2964 , 2019
    2019
    Citations: 31
  • Alkoxy group facilitated ring closing metathesis
    A NAYEK, S BANERJEE, S SINHA, S GHOSH
    Tetrahedron letters 45 (34) , 2004
    2004

MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • Biochemical and artificial pathways for the reduction of carbon dioxide, nitrite and the competing proton reduction: effect of 2 nd sphere interactions in catalysis
    S Amanullah, P Saha, A Nayek, ME Ahmed, A Dey
    Chemical Society Reviews 50 (6), 3755-3823 , 2021
    2021
    Citations: 160
  • Oxygen reduction by iron porphyrins with covalently attached pendent phenol and quinol
    A Singha, A Mondal, A Nayek, SG Dey, A Dey
    Journal of the American Chemical Society 142 (52), 21810-21828 , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 75
  • A bidirectional bioinspired [FeFe]-hydrogenase model
    ME Ahmed, A Nayek, A Križan, N Coutard, A Morozan, S Ghosh Dey, ...
    Journal of the American Chemical Society 144 (8), 3614-3625 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 59
  • Induction of enzyme-like peroxidase activity in an iron porphyrin complex using second sphere interactions
    S Bhakta, A Nayek, B Roy, A Dey
    Inorganic Chemistry 58 (5), 2954-2964 , 2019
    2019
    Citations: 31
  • A single iron porphyrin shows pH dependent switch between “Push” and “Pull” effects in electrochemical oxygen reduction
    S Mukherjee, A Nayek, S Bhunia, SG Dey, A Dey
    Inorganic Chemistry 59 (19), 14564-14576 , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 20
  • Second-Sphere Hydrogen-Bond Donors and Acceptors Affect the Rate and Selectivity of Electrochemical Oxygen Reduction by Iron Porphyrins Differently
    A Ghatak, S Samanta, A Nayek, S Mukherjee, SG Dey, A Dey
    Inorganic Chemistry 61 (33), 12931-12947 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 16
  • Facile electrocatalytic proton reduction by a [Fe–Fe]-hydrogenase bio-inspired synthetic model bearing a terminal CN− ligand
    A Nayek, S Dey, S Patra, A Rana, PN Serrano, SJ George, SP Cramer, ...
    Chemical Science 15 (6), 2167-2180 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 13
  • Second sphere control of CO2 reduction selectivity by iron porphyrins: The role of spin state
    S Patra, S Ghosh, S Samanta, A Nayek, A Dey
    Journal of Organometallic Chemistry 1023, 123439 , 2025
    2025
    Citations: 10
  • Bioinorganic chemistry on electrodes: methods to functional modeling
    A Nayek, ME Ahmed, S Samanta, S Dinda, S Patra, SG Dey, A Dey
    Journal of the American Chemical Society 144 (19), 8402-8429 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 10
  • Reduction of sulfur dioxide to sulfur monoxide by ferrous porphyrin
    A Bhattacharya, A Kumar Nath, A Ghatak, A Nayek, S Dinda, R Saha, ...
    Angewandte Chemie International Edition 62 (10), e202215235 , 2023
    2023
    Citations: 8
  • Low Potential CO 2 Reduction by Inert Fe(II)‐Macrobicyclic Complex: A New Concept of Cavity Assisted CO 2 Activation
    P Sarkar, S Sarkar, A Nayek, NN Adarsh, AK Pal, A Datta, A Dey, P Ghosh
    Small 20 (10), 2304794 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 4
  • Phenoxide coordination to Fe (III) tetraphenylporphyrin: Exploring antibacterial and electrocatalytic HER activity
    M Patra, TK Das, A Saha, T Das, A Patra, S Garai, A Nayek, UK Roy, ...
    Inorganica Chimica Acta 568, 122084 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 3
  • Amplifying Reactivity of Bio‐Inspired [FeFe]‐Hydrogenase Mimics by Organic Nanotubes
    ME Ahmed, P Das, SM Ahamed, S Chattopadhyay, A Nayek, M Mondal, ...
    Chemistry–A European Journal 30 (68), e202403011 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 2
  • Hydrogen Oxidation by Bioinspired Models of [FeFe]-Hydrogenase
    A Nayek, RK Poria, ME Ahmed, S Patra, SG Dey, A Dey
    ACS Organic & Inorganic Au 5 (2), 105-116 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 2
  • Alkoxy group facilitated ring closing metathesis
    A NAYEK, S BANERJEE, S SINHA, S GHOSH
    Tetrahedron letters 45 (34) , 2004
    2004