Dr. Pooja Sindhu

Assistant Professor

Interest Area(s)

Metal-organic framework (MOF) thin films and their heterostructures for electronic/optoelectronic applications

Dr. Pooja Sindhu is an Assistant Professor at the School of Basic and Applied Sciences, K.R. Mangalam University. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from IISER Pune (2018–2024), where she was awarded the Gold Medal and Best Ph.D. Thesis Award. Her research focuses on metal-organic framework (MOF) thin films and their heterostructures for electronic and optoelectronic applications. She has published in reputed journals such as Nature Communications, Advanced Functional Materials, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters and Inorganic Chemistry. Dr. Sindhu has presented her work at several international conferences and received multiple accolades, including the DST-SERB International Travel Grant and Best Poster Award at IWNEM 2023.

  • Ph.D. (2018-2024): Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune
  • M.Sc. (2015-2017): National Institute of Technology (NIT) Jamshedpur
  • B.Sc. (2012-2015): Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) Rohtak
  1. Graduate Research Teaching Experience
  • CHM201: Principles of Inorganic Chemistry, IISER Pune (Fall 2019)
  • CHM360: Advanced Inorganic Chemistry Lab, IISER Pune (Spring 2020)
  • CHM445: Electrochemistry, IISER Pune (Fall 2020)
  • Sindhu, S. Saha, U. Bhoi, N. Ballav, Bistable Interface: Reversible Switching of Rectifying to Nonrectifying Current Across Heterostructured Thin Films of MOFs, Adv. Funct. Mater. 2024, 2312515
  • Sindhu, N. Ballav, Thin Films of MOF-on-Guest@MOF: A Simple Strategy of Designing Electronic Heterostructures, Inorg. Chem. 2023, 62, 10887−10891
  • Sindhu, K. S. Ananthram, A. Jain, K. Tarafder, N. Ballav, Insulator-to-Metal-like Transition in Thin Films of a Biological Metal-Organic Framework, Nat. Commun. 2023, 14, 2857
  • Sindhu, K. S. Ananthram, A. Jain, K. Tarafder, N. Ballav, Charge-Transfer Interface of Insulating Metal-Organic Frameworks with Metallic Conduction, Nat. Commun. 2022, 13, 7665
  • Sindhu, A. Prasoon, S. Rana, N. Ballav, Emergent Interface in Heterostructured Thin Films of Cu(II) and Cu(I) Coordination Polymers, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2020, 11, 6242−6248
  • Sathish Lathika, S. Rana, A. Prasoon, Sindhu, D. Roy, N. Ballav, Direct Layer-by-Layer Growth of Crystalline Ag-TCNQ Thin Films on Functionalized Au Substrate: How Critical Is the pH of Ag(I) Solution? J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2020, 11, 10548−10551
  • Rana, P. Sindhu, N. Ballav, Perspective on the Interfacial Reduction Reaction, Langmuir 2019, 35, 9647−9659
  • Presented a poster titled “Thin Films of Cu-TCNQ and Ag-TCNQ at Solid-Liquid Interface” at Low Dimensional Materials (LDM), 2019, IISER Pune, India
  • Virtual poster presentation on “Emergent Interface in Heterostructured Thin Films of Cu(II) and Cu(I) Coordination Polymers” at ChemSci2020: Leaders in the Field Symposium, IISER Kolkata, India
  • Presented a poster titled “Emergent Interface in Heterostructured Thin Films of Cu(II) and Cu(I) Coordination Polymers” at 44th International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ICCC), 2022, Rimini, Italy
  • Oral presentation on “MOF-on-MOF Heterostructured Thin Films: A Rational Design to Explore Interfacial Properties” at Young Investigator Symposium (YIS) of MOF-2022, TU Dresden, Germany
  • Presented a poster titled “MOF-on-MOF Heterostructured Thin Films: A Rational Design to Explore Interfacial Properties” at 8th International Conference on Metal-Organic Frameworks and Open Framework Compounds (MOF) 2022, Dresden, Germany
  • Oral presentation on “Emergent Interface in Hetero-structured MOF Thin Films” at ChemSymphoria, 2022, IISER Pune, India
  • Presented a poster titled “MOF-on-MOF Heterostructured Thin Films: A Rational Design to Explore Interfacial Properties” at Low Dimensional Materials (LDM), 2022, IISER Pune, India
  • Poster presentation on “Metallic Conduction at the Hetero-interface of Electrically Insulating Metal-Organic Frameworks” at International Workshop on Nano-Engineered Materials (IWNEM), 2023, IISER Thiruvananthapuram, India
  • Presented a poster titled “Thermally Driven Resistive Switching in Thin Film of Biological Metal-Organic Framework” at Emerging Materials, 2023, IISER Pune, India
  • Achieved Gold medal in Ph.D. (Chemistry) from IISER Pune
  • Awarded best Ph.D. thesis award in Chemistry from IISER Pune
  • Selected for the best poster award at International Workshop on Nano-Engineered Materials (IWNEM), 2023, IISER Thiruvananthapuram, India
  • Selected for DST-SERB International Travel Grant awarded by Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India
  • Selected for DST-INSPIRE Scholarship awarded by Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India
  • Qualified CSIR-UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) Exam as a junior research fellow (JRF) in Chemical Sciences, a national level entrance examination to pursue Ph.D.
  • Qualified Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) Exam in Chemical Sciences twice, a national level entrance examination to pursue M.Tech., Ph.D. and other industrial jobs
  • Qualified Joint Admission Test for M.Sc. (JAM), a national level entrance examination to pursue M.Sc. and Integrated Ph.D.