TOP RESEARCH IN INDIA

POST CREATED BY AMAN GUPTA(11/08/20)

BLACK GOLD BY INDIAN SCIENTIST

Using gold nanoparticles Indian scientists have developed a new material called “black gold”, which can potentially be used for applications ranging from solar energy harvesting to desalinating seawater, according to a study.

To develop the material, the team from Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) rearranged size and gaps between gold nanoparticles. It has unique properties such as capacity to absorb light and carbon dioxide (CO2), the researchers said.

Gold does not have these properties, therefore ‘black gold’ is being called a new material. In appearance it is black, hence the name ‘black gold’, according to the findings published in Chemical Science journal.

“We have not doped gold nanoparticles with any other material or added other materials. We varied inter-particle distance between gold nanoparticles using a cycle-by-cycle growth approach by optimising the nucleation-growth step, using dendritic fibrous nanosilica, whose fibers were used as the deposition site for gold nanoparticles,” said Vivek Polshettiwar, who led the research team, while speaking to India Science Wire.

One of the most fascinating properties of the new material is its ability to absorb the entire visible and near-infrared region of solar light. It does so because of inter-particle plasmonic coupling as well as heterogeneity in nanoparticle size.

Black gold could also act as a catalyst and could convert CO2 into methane at atmospheric pressure and temperature using solar energy.

“If we develop an artificial tree with leaves made out of back gold, it can perform artificial photosynthesis, capturing carbon dioxide and converting it into fuel and other useful chemicals,” Polshettiwar added.

The efficiency of conversion of CO2 into fuel, at present, is low but researchers believe it could be improved in future.

To understand solar energy harvesting ability of the new material, researchers dispersed it into water and exposed the solution to light for one hour and the temperature of the solution was measured.

The temperature of the solution with pure silica spheres rose to 38 degrees while the ones with different concentrations of black gold rose to 67 to 88 degrees. The maximum increase in temperature was attributed creation of thermal hotspots due to the heterogeneity of the particle sizes as well as optimum inter- particle coupling.

The material can be used as a nano-heater to covert seawater into potable water with good efficiency, the researchers said.

“Our results indicate the potential application of black gold in purification of seawater to potable water via steam generation using solar energy under atmospheric reaction conditions,” according to the researchers. (India Science Wire)

INDIA'S CYTOTRON CANCER DEVICE

Cytotron, developed by Rajah Vijay Kumar, aids in tissue engineering of cancer cells, altering how specific proteins are regulated to stop these cells from multiplying and spreading.

“We are pleased to inform you that your device and proposed indication for use meet the criteria and have been granted designation as a breakthrough device,” states a communique from the FDA wing to Shreis Scalene Sciences, the company that had taken the device to the US.

Cytotron is intended to cause degeneration of uncontrolled growth of tissues. “It is indicated for treating protein-linked, abnormally regenerating disorders such as neoplastic disease, and allowing extended progression free survival, with pain relief, palliation, improved quality and dignity of life,” says the letter.

Kumar had developed Cytotron at the Centre for Advanced Research [Development, which is headquartered in Bhopal, after nearly 30 years of research into cellular pathways and interactions with specifically modulated fast radio bursts.

“It is a great feeling that after so many years of hard work, against all odds, an institution like the USFDA is designating our work as a breakthrough in the treatment of three types of cancers,” Kumar said.

New technologies in the battle against cancer have generally been hard to come by. It’s even rarer for an Indian device to get breakthrough status in the US. The Centre for Devices and Radiological Health is responsible for pre-market approval of all medical devices in the US, ensuring they are safe for use and effective

“The devices will all be made in India, given that there are hardly any imported components. And our American partner will take the device to the US. Cytotron is already an approved medical device and is in use in the UAE, Mexico, Malaysia and Hong Kong, among others,” Kumar said.

THIRTY METER TELESCOPE(TMT)

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), slated to be the world’s largest ground-based telescope operating at optical and infrared wavelengths, is an international Big Science project with participation from institutions from the United States, Canada, China, Japan and India.

About 70 per cent of Indian contribution will be in the form of both hardware and software for the telescope. Indian entities are engaged in developing observatory software as well as telescope control system.

This week, a key milestone of software development for TMT was reached with pre-shipment review of the Telescope Common Software (CSW), which has been under development for the past two years. This means the software is consistent with original requirements and design and now is ready for its future integration within TMT’s software infrastructure.

The software has been developed by ThoughtWorks Technologies based in Pune. This team is also developing another software component for the telescope — Executive Software product.

“It is the first TMT software component to be completed and ready for shipment. This achievement successfully shows that working with our India-partner and India-based vendor development team, we can develop software remotely following the formal preliminary and final design reviews, while under the management of the project office,” Kim Gillies, TMT lead software architect, said.

The CSW package will be the software communication backbone with necessary for the observatory-wide configuration, command, control, and status reporting. It will be layered on top of the IT infrastructure network provided by the future Communications and information sub-system.

The package includes a number of services, each providing a single required function needed for integrating the subsystems. Its design made use of open-source resources and provided astronomy-oriented interfaces. This approach speeded up the development process.

“We have built an effective tri-partite collaboration between the main Project Office in Pasadena, the India TMT Coordination Center (ITCC) in Bangalore and the ThoughtWorks Company,” said Francisco Delgado, TMT Observatory software project manager, in a press statement.

“All these teams have cooperated very effectively. Passing the Pre-Shipment review is a very powerful demonstration that the software team will be capable of delivering the other software components in the future," he added.

Work on another set of software — the telescope control system (TCS) — has entered final design phase following the final design review recently. It will provide and maintain high-quality stable images to the science instruments located at the telescope’s Nasmyth focal planes.

Though Hawaii remains the favoured site for setting up TMT, the project has been delayed due to opposition from a section of native Hawaiians. Following this, the TMT International Observatory Board has decided to develop a secondary Northern Hemisphere site on which to construct the observatory. This is at La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain. (India Science Wire)

CSIR (COUNCIL OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH) LAUNCHES GREEN CRACKERS

The `green’ crackers reduce particulate emissions by 30 per cent and are available at the same cost as the traditional ones, some of them even cheaper.

Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan have launched a set of new crackers that promises to help reduce particulate emissions by 30 per cent while producing the same level of light and sound effects of traditional fireworks.

The new firework, which covers popularly used sound-emitting crackers, flowerpots, pencils, chakkar and sparklers, are based on formulations developed by a consortium of eight laboratories under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) led by Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute.

Launching the `green’ crackers at a press conference, Harsh Vardhan said the crackers would be available at the same cost as the traditional ones. “Some of them may even be cheaper,” he said.

He noted that about 230 firework manufacturers had signed the memorandum of understanding for using the formulations developed by CSIR scientists. Of them, 165 have gone further and have also entered into a non-disclosure agreement.

CSIR had taken up the project to develop eco-friendly crackers in the wake of directions of the Supreme Court restricting the use of fireworks to address the growing problem of pollution in different parts of the country.

The project adopted a two-pronged approach. While one stream of activity was focussed on improving the traditional crackers through reduction in the level of Barium Nitrate, which is the main villain, the second pathway aimed at replacing Barium Nitrate with a more benign Potassium Nitrate.

As part of the exercise, the scientists also set up a new facility that could be used by manufacturers to characterise the raw material and analyse the compositions of the chemicals used in fireworks.

The Minister said that the new and improved crackers had been demonstrated to manufacturers and their associations such as Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association and Indian Fireworks Manufacturers Association, besides the Central Pollution Control Board and Petroleum And Explosives Safety Organisation, which is responsible for controlling transport, storage and usage of all explosive materials,

Besides National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, the consortium consisted of Central Electrochemical Engineering Research Institute, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, National Chemical Laboratory, Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute, National Botanical Research Institute and Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute.

Harsh Vardhan said the new set of crackers would have a prominent green logo to differentiate them from the conventional ones. Further, it would carry QR code for monitoring. Scanning of the code would provide all information about the product, including the chemicals and the process used.