Venkata Suresh Mothika

Dr. Venkata Suresh Mothika serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, where he leads research in cutting-edge organic materials. His work bridges fundamental chemistry with practical applications in electronics, sensing, and energy technologies.

Dr. Mothika completed his Ph.D. in 2016 from the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, following an M.Sc. from NIT-Trichy (2009) and B.Sc. from Andhra Loyola College (2007). His academic journey was bolstered by prestigious fellowships including the Royal Society Newton International Fellowship (2019-2022) at the University of York, PBC Research Fellowship at Weizmann Institute of Science (2019), and Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at Bergische Universität Wuppertal (2016-2018).

His research focuses on redox-active non-planar aromatic systems, particularly heterohelicenes, curved aromatic diimides, and π-conjugated organic diradicals. Key areas include the development of chiral twisted organic materials, high-spin organic radicals, electroactive heterohelicenes, and porous organic polymers. Through rational molecular design, he creates 3D non-planar redox-active chiral polyaromatics from traditional 2D systems like naphthalenediimides (NDI) and perylenediimides (PDI), exploring their unique electronic, optical, and magnetic properties for applications in organic electronics and spintronics.

Analysis of Dr. Mothika's publications reveals a consistent trajectory from fundamental supramolecular chemistry toward advanced materials with electronic applications. His early work focused on MOFs and microporous polymers for gas sorption and light-harvesting, while more recent publications emphasize chiral organic materials, electroactive helicenes, and high-spin systems for magnetoelectronics. The research demonstrates increasing sophistication in molecular design, with publications in high-impact journals including ACS Applied Nano Materials (with cover art), Nature Communications, and Advanced Functional Materials (with cover art).

• Member of Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC), UK (2020)
• The Royal Society Newton International Fellowship (2019)
• PBC Postdoctoral Fellowship, Israel (2019)
• AvH Foundation nomination for Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting (2017)
• Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship (2016)

Dr. Mothika's research program integrates advanced synthetic organic chemistry with materials characterization techniques including spectroelectrochemistry, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. His group explores the fundamental properties of non-planar aromatic systems to develop applications in organic electronics, spintronics, CPL emission, electrocatalysis, redox-triggered chiroptical switching, OLEDs, and OFETs. His work on high-spin organic diradicals aims to achieve combined spin-alignment and selective spin conduction in single molecular systems, potentially creating conducting magnets.

The research group focuses on three interconnected areas: (1) redox-active heterohelicenes and twisted aromatic systems, (2) supramolecular chemistry of amphiphilic helicenes, and (3) high-spin organic diradicals for spintronics applications. Through rational molecular design and advanced characterization, they investigate how structural modifications affect electronic, optical, and magnetic properties in these complex organic materials.