Research Activities

Nowadays the A. E. Arbuzov Institute of Organic and Physical Chemistryis one of the first-rate scientific institutes in the Volga region. The scope of the performed investigations is oriented both to the fundamental research in the field of chemistry and to the application of the obtained results to the solution of the problems of the region and the country.
The main direction of the research in the Institute – chemistry of phosphorus and its organic and organoelement compounds as the basis for the development of new substances, materials and technologies – is the oldest but ageless field, initiated by the founders of the Institute Academicians Alexander Erminingel’dovich and Boris Alexandrovich Arbuzovs. So, no wonder that at the threshold of the 120th anniversary of Academician A. E. Arbuzov the First President of the Republic of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev signed the Decree establishing the International Arbuzov Prize in the field of organophosphorus chemistry.
In the last decade new branches of research have been formed and are successfully implemented in the Institute in the course of modern world chemistry development along with the traditional investigations. In a short space of time the Institute
became a world-recognized center of research in the field of supramolecular chemistry, what resulted in the organization of the Joint Russian-French Laboratory.

Coordination and organometallic chemistry is a new rapidly developing branch of research in the IOPC. Chemistry of heterocyclic compounds, being traditional in the Institute, attained new features, having turned into chemistry of macro- and polynuclear carbo- and heterocyclic compounds. Among the new branches of research are the investigations oriented to the elaboration of the technology of extraction of useful products from vegetable raw material, synthesis of new materials on the basis of fullerene derivatives, as well as the development of new methods for obtaining, analysis and application of non-racemic substances.
IOPC also carefully keeps traditions in the field of natural compounds research, creation of biologically active preparations for medicine, food industry and agriculture.
IOPC is located in Kazan – the capital of the oil-producing Republic of Tatarstan. Thus geochemistry, chemistry and processing of oil and bitumen belong to the most significant scientific directions of the Institute.
Multiple-Access Spectro-Analytical Center for Physical-Chemical Study of Structure, Properties and Composition of Substances and Materials, which has the status of a Federal Multiple-Access Center successfully functionates in the Institute. This Center is entered in the list of the Federal Multiple-Access Centers of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation and is certified at the State Corporation RUSNANO.

The Center is equipped with the most modern devices for performing the NMR-, IR-, ESR-, Raman, mass-spectral and X-ray diffraction research, such as AVANCE-600 and AVANCE-400 NMR spectrometers, ELEXSYS E500/071010-СМ ESR spectrometer, Tensor 37, Vertex 70, RAM II IR-Fourier spectrometers; DFS and MALDI-TOF-Q-TOF mass-spectrometers; Smart Apex II and KAPPA APEX II automated X-ray single crystal diffractometers, D8 ADVANCE powder diffractometer and NanoSTAR SAXS small-angle X-ray scattering diffractometer.
In addition to the Multiple-Access Center, the Center of Chemical-Analytical Research is established in the Institute. The main task of the Center activity is the performance of quantitative chemical analysis for obtaining reliable information on the state of natural environment.
The educational activity of the Institute is concentrated at the Research and Education Center (REC) “Nanomaterials in Chemistry and Biology”. Annually more than hundred students and about thirty post-graduates study at REC, and more than thirty leading scientists of IOPC participate in the educational process both in the framework of REC.
IOPC is a world recognized scientific center. Its infrastructure contains two laboratory buildings, building for biological research with a vivarium, building of model sets for working-off the developed in the IOPC technologies on a semi-industrial scale and fabrication of enlarged lots of science intensive chemical production, various workshops, auxiliary buildings, as well as a memorial house of two great chemists of the XXth century – Academicians Arbuzovs – unique in our country.

At present the main directions of scientific activity of the Institute are the following:

• Chemistry of elemental phosphorus, its organic and organoelement compounds as the background for obtaining new substances, materials and environmentally safe resource-saving technologies.
• Chemistry of hetero- and macrocyclic compounds, carbon and organoelement nanoclusters – new molecular platforms and construction units for the design of supramolecular structures and nanomaterials. Physical-chemical study of the structure and properties of molecular and supramolecular systems in solid and liquid phases, as well as dynamic processes of self-organization in solutions.
• Creation of biologically active preparations in cluding those on the basis of biopolymers and low-molecular-weight natural compounds for medicine, food industry and agriculture. Technological processes of renewable raw material processing including biofuels production.
• Oil chemistry and geochemistry. Scientific backgrounds of optimization of the processes of hydrocarbon raw material production and processing, of complex development of deposits of extra-viscous oils and natural bitumen with the account of ecological requirements.
• Stereochemistry and crystal chemistry of molecular, supramolecular and nanosize systems. Synthesis of non-racemic substances.
• Diagnostics of nanoparticles and functional materials including nanomaterials. Development of the methodology for tool control and monitoring of nanotoxicants and ecotoxicants.