Imran Khan has been working as an Associate Professor in the Physical Chemistry Division, Department of Chemistry, Sultan Qaboos University, since 2016, with a specialization in thermodynamics and its applications of strategic importance in environmental topical issues.

The research profile has grown in leaps and bounds principally due to the unique postdoctoral opportunities. Dr. Khan's academic career commenced with three consecutive prestigious and productive postdoctoral fellowships, namely the NRF-Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (Durban University of Technology, South Africa), Universiti Sains Malaysia Postdoctoral Fellowship (Penang, Malaysia) and Fundaçãopara a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) Postdoctoral Fellowship (University of Aveiro, Portugal). As a postdoctoral research fellow, Dr. Khan worked in the research group of Prof João A.P. Coutinho who runs the group famed as Process and Product Applied Thermodynamics (PATh), Dept. of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Portugal.

Dr. Khan has secured several research grants as the principal investigator, namely the Collaborative Research SQU-Qatar Grant (2022-2024), Al Maha Petroleum Grant (2019-2020), Internal Grant (2019-2020), and Exploratory Research and Development Projects, Funded by FCT, Portugal (http://www.fct.pt/index.phtml.en) (2013-2014). Moreover, under his supervision and guidance, his research group students have been awarded the Undergraduate Research Grant (URG) and Graduate Research Grant (GRG) by the Research Council (TRC) of Oman.

Dr. Khan's research work mostly focused on the thermodynamic and physicochemical properties of a novel class of ionic liquids (ILs) and liquid mixtures. And designing ILs for the extraction of value-added components, separation, material development, environmental remediation, micellization, enhanced oil recovery, and corrosion. Also, focus on the polymer-ILs interaction for drug delivery. Dr. Khan also performs systematic theoretical and computational studies to understand the interaction at the molecular level.

Dr. Khan's research endeavor at SQU has led to a number of journal articles, edited books, and book chapters as the first or corresponding author, or both, and the impact of these publications is evidenced by the h-index of 22 and citations. Dr. Khan, also presented many scientific research papers at various international conferences. Dr. Khan is also a member of various scientific chemical societies. Dr. Khan has been nominated twice for the Best Researcher Award. Finally, apart from serving on several committees at the departmental and college levels, Dr. Khan has acted as the Head of the Department of Chemistry and served over the past several years as the Chairman of the Physical Chemistry Division.

Physical Chemistry

My research is focused on thermodynamic and physicochemical properties of novel class of ionic liquids and liquid mixture. Current research interests are designing ionic liquids (IL) for extraction of value added component, separation, materials development, environmental remediation, micellization, enhanced oil recovery, corrosion. Also focus on polymer-Ionic Liquid Interaction for the application in drug delivery. We also perform systematic theoretical and computational study to understand the interaction at the molecular level.