SBLab

Congratulations to Dr. Supratim Mondal on joining the American Chemical Society (ACS) as a Development Editor. SBLab is immensely proud of this remarkable achievement, which reflects his dedication, scientific excellence, and professional accomplishments developed during his journey with our group. We wish Supratim great success and fulfillment in this exciting new chapter of his editorial career.

It’s always gratifying to see students communicate their science beyond the lab. Congratulations, Abhijit—well deserved!

How Water Microdroplets Turn Sugars into Valuable Platform Chemicals - BioPatrika Researcher Spotlight - First author interview revealing how water microdroplets convert reducing sugars into 5-HMF under ambient conditions, offering a green biomass pathway and insights into prebiotic chemistry.

Hello world! A long-held belief just changed.
Argon, the third most abundant gas in our atmosphere, was thought to be absolutely inert under ambient conditions. But nature had a secret hidden in plain sight.
We show that argon reacts in humid air, on the surface of tiny water droplets, forming argon hydroxide cations at room temperature—stable, observable, and sustained. This stands in sharp contrast to a century-old belief that argon remains chemically inactive and a passive component of the atmospheric gases. This is the first-ever ambient argon compound discovered on Earth. This finding is a reminder of how much the universe still conceals around us. Sometimes, the smallest droplets hold the biggest surprises, and nature continues to humble us with its quiet complexity.


✨ Science never stops rewriting what we think we know.

Unveiling Argon’s Hidden Reactivity: Discovery of Argon Hydroxide Cations at the Air–Water Interface of Microdroplets Argon is the third most abundant gas in the atmosphere and is regarded as chemically inert. Unlike many other atmospheric gases that have undergone fixation over geological time scales, argon has not been known to form stable compounds. Contrary to this century-old belief, we report that argon can r...

Our latest in JACS: Nature’s chemistry lab is in the air! We uncover a unique alchemy of aqueous microdroplets that drives the in-flight metamorphosis of indole into quinazolinone pharmacophores, core scaffolds for many anticancer, antimicrobial, and CNS-active drugs. We developed a green, microdroplet-enabled route to medicinal scaffolds – yes, it is scalable.

Aqueous Microdroplets Induce the Metamorphosis of Indole into Quinazolinone Pharmacophores Sprayed water microdroplets often enable reaction pathways that remain inaccessible in a bulk solution. Here, we uncover a unique alchemy of aqueous microdroplets that drives the in-flight metamorphosis of indole without the need for external catalysts. When aqueous indole solutions mixed with ammon...

Just published in JACS: We cut the strongest organic bond by water. Fluorine just got humbled at the air-water interface

Breaking the Strongest Organic Bonds by Water: Defluorosubstitutions at the Air–Water Interface of Microdroplets The C–F bond is recognized as the strongest single bond in organic chemistry. Activating such inert bonds typically demands rigorous reaction conditions, often involving expensive transition metal catalysts or harsh reagents. In stark contrast, this study demonstrates reagent-free defluorosubstitu...

Just spray it, and boom – polyoxometalate assembled! No fuss, no reagent, no corrosive chemicals, just fast formation on the go. Chemistry made simpler, smarter – It is the magic of ‘microdroplet chemistry’.

Sprayed Microdroplets Architect a Polyoxometalate Framework While many past attempts have utilized micron-sized droplets for breaking and forming organic bonds, their potential in promoting inorganic bond formation reactions remains largely unexplored. We rep...