Dr. Gunjan Purohit

Assistant Professor (Senior Grade)

gunjan.purohit@jiit.ac.in; gunjan.purohit@mail.jiit.ac.in

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Gunjan Purohit joined the Department of Biotechnology at the Jaypee Institute of Information Technology as an Assistant Professor in December 2024. Before her appointment at JIIT, Dr. Purohit worked as a Research Associate at the Hindustan Petroleum Green Research and Development Centre (HPGRDC) in Bangalore, India from 2022-2023. Prior to that, she served as a Research Scientist (Nano) at IITB-Monash Research Academy, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India with Avisa Biotech Pvt. Ltd., from 2021-2022.

Dr. Purohit holds a Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Chemistry (2010) and a Master of Science in Organic Chemistry (2012) from Ramjas College, University of Delhi. She earned her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 2021 from the Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, specializing in the design and development of nanomaterials for applications in organic transformations and photosensitization. During her doctoral studies, she received notable awards, including the CSIR-SRF (India) and the DAAD-iPUR (2018) fellowship which funded her research stay at the Department of Chemistry, University of Regensburg, Germany. At the University of Regensburg, she synthesized palladium-based silica-coated amine-functionalized cobalt nanobeads and investigated their catalytic potential for hydrogenation reactions.

Additionally, Dr. Purohit has received summer training in chemistry (STIC Program) training in the year 2011 from the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

During her tenure at HPGRDC, she gained experience managing various projects, including industrial scale-up processes. Her projects involved the synthesis of warm mixed additives (organic polymeric moieties), synthetic lubricants (Tribology), and organic synthesis for aviation fuel (synthetic jet propellant JP-10). At the IITB-Monash Research Academy, she concentrated on synthesizing melanin nanoparticles for various industrial applications, including SPF/UV blocker formulations, electromagnetic wave shielding, and X-ray blockers. Dr. Purohit also engaged in analytical data processing and gained hands-on experience for characterizing nanomaterials and organic compounds, utilizing techniques such as 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FTIR, mass spectrometry, GC-MS, HRTEM, FESEM, XPS, XRD, and ICP.

Dr. Purohit research interests are focused on the application of novel nanomaterials for heterogeneous catalysis and organic synthesis. She is eager to explore unexplored research domains that can bridge academic research with real-world applications

PUBLICATIONS

International Journals

Rahul,^‡ Purohit, G,^‡ Rawat, D. S.^* (2024) Zinc-aluminum mixed oxide nanocomposites catalyzed KA2 coupling of ketone, amine, and an alkyne: An environmentally benign approach, Tetrahedron Lett. 139, 154987. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tetlet.2024.154987 (IF-1.5)
Kharkwal, A.,^‡ Purohit, G.,^‡ Rahul, Rawat, D. S.^* (2020) Zinc oxide sensitized graphene quantum dots “ZnO-GQDs”: A hybrid concept to study charge transfer and its catalytic applicability to synthesize tetrasubstituted propargyl amines, Asian J. Org. Chem., 9, 2162 - 2169. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajoc.202000460 (IF-2.8)
Purohit, G.^‡Kharkwal, A.,^‡ Rawat, D. S.^* (2020) CuIn-ethylxanthate, a “Versatile Precursor” for Photosensitization of Graphene-Quantum Dots and Nanocatalyzed Synthesis of Imidazopyridines with Ideal Green Chemistry Metrics. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 8, 5544 – 5557. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b07371 (IF-7.1)
Purohit, G., Rawat, D. S.,^* Reiser, O.^* (2020) Palladium nanocatalysts encapsulated on porous silica@ magnetic carbon‐coated cobalt nanoparticles for sustainable hydrogenations of nitroarenes, alkenes, and alkynes. ChemCatChem 12, 569 – 575. https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cctc.201901371 (Impact Factor: 4.04)
Purohit, G.,Rawat, D. S.^* (2019) Hierarchically porous mixed oxide sheets like copper−aluminum nanocatalyzed synthesis of 2 alkynyl pyrrolidines/piperidines and their ideal green chemistry metrics. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 2019, 7, 19235 – 19245. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b05410(IF-7.1)
Purohit, G.,Rajesh, U. C., Rawat, D. S.^* (2017) Hierarchically porous sphere-like copper oxide (HS-CuO) nanocatalyzed synthesis of benzofuran isomers with anomalous selectivity and their ideal green chemistry metrics, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 5, 6466–6477.https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b00500 (IF-7.1)
Rajesh, U. C., Purohit, G., Rawat, D. S.^* (2015) One-Pot Synthesis of Aminoindolizines and Chalcones Using CuI/CSP Nanocomposites with Anomalous Selectivity under Green Conditions, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 3, 2397−2404. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acssuschemeng.5b00701(IF-7.1)

BOOK CHAPTERS

Manish Rawat^*, Gunjan Purohit^*, Diwan S. Rawat (2024) Case Studies and Success Stories of AI Implementation in Wastewater Treatment. Springer, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-69433-2_8(ISBN-9783031694325) (*Equal Contribution)
Gunjan Purohit^*, Manish Rawat^*,Diwan S. Rawat (2023) Nanostructured Sponges for the Removal of Toxic Dyes from Wastewater. In: Gulati, S. (eds) Nanosponges for Environmental Remediation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41077-2_18(ISBN: 9780323906272).(*Equal Contribution)
Gunjan Purohit,Diwan S. Rawat (2022) Characterization Techniques for Chitosan and Its Based Nanocomposites. In: Gulati S. (eds) Chitosan-Based Nanocomposite Materials. Springer, Singapore. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-19-5338-5_3(ISBN: 9789811953378).
Gunjan Purohit,Diwan S. Rawat (2022) Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) Encapsulated Nanoparticles: Potential Catalysts for Diverse Organic Reactions. In: Gulati S. (eds) Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) as Catalysts. Springer, Singapore. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-16-7959-9_26(ISBN: 9789811679582).

CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP/INVITED TALK

Gunjan Purohit and Diwan S. Rawat*, Sustainable synthesis of nanomaterial: Application for one pot multicomponent reactions, Virtual Conference on Materials for Energy Harvesting and Catalysis, MEHC-2020 India, May 1 – 3, 2020 (ORAL)
Gunjan Purohit and Diwan S. Rawat*, Sustainable synthesis of nanomaterial and their catalytic potential for one pot multicomponent reactions, 107th Indian Science Congress Conference-2020, GKVK, Bangalore, India, January 3-7, 2020. (ORAL)
Gunjan Purohit, U. Chinna Rajesh, and Diwan S. Rawat. * Sustainable design of nanomaterial and their catalytic potential for one pot multicomponent reactions, CACEE-2018; Conference on Advances in Catalysis for Energy and Environment, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Homi Bhabha Road, Navy Nagar, Colaba, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, 400005, January 10-12, 2018 (POSTER)
Gunjan Purohit, U. Chinna Rajesh and Diwan S. Rawat*, Development of copper based nanocatalysts for multi-component synthesis of heterocycles via A3 coupling strategy, CARBO-XXXI International Conference on "New Frontiers in Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biology" University of Delhi, Delhi, India, 14-16^th November 2016. (POSTER).
Gunjan Purohit, U. Chinna Rajesh and Diwan S. Rawat*, One pot multicomponent synthesis of N/O heterocycles via A3 coupling using copper based nanocatalysts, DU-JAIST Indo-Japan Symposium on Chemistry of Functional Molecules/ Materials, University of Delhi, Delhi, India, 26-27th February 2016. (POSTER).

AWARDS/FELLOWSHIPS

CSIR Direct SRF HRDG(CSIR) sanction letter no./file no: 09/045(1707)/19-EMR-I
DAAD-ⁱPUR-2018 fellow for the Ph.D. registered students under Prof. Oliver Reiser at the Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Regensburg, Germany.
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2013