Graphene-Based Rechargeable Energy Storage Micro Device:

Ongoing research on energy storage materials has shown that graphene based energy storage devices can provide portable energy sources and advanced energy storage solutions for application in renewable energy, electric vehicles, smart grids, biomass, urban lifestyle devices and consumer care industries. These are unique for their ability to combine the energy storage properties of batteries with the power discharge characteristics of capacitors. One such energy storage device is depicted in Figure 1.

The advantages of graphene-based power electronics system as compared with the battery-based devices are light weight, flexible mechanical structure, reduced size, high cycle life and low cost. In this project a power electronics charger cum inverter unit is developed to demonstrate the charging/discharging characteristics of the developed coin cell graphene supercapacitor. A microcontroller (Microchip’s dsPIC) based embedded control platform (control card) along with optocoupler based gate driver board and signal conditioning circuitry have been developed

Synthesizing new molecules - materialistic applications:

This group is also actively engaged in the field of chemistry for mankind. Several small and polymeric molecules have been synthesized for multiple applications. A few among them is mentioned below.

Sensor Based application:

To fight against the dental fluorosis, emphasis has been given towards detection of fluoride like biologically relevant anion from human body fluid. In this regard, a series of molecule has been prepared with precise tuning in side arm of the organic chemosensor.  The newly developed sensor molecule could detect salivary fluoride level with distinct colorimetric changes, i.e.; the diagnosis of dental fluorosis could be performed. In addition the sensor could detect intracellular fluoride level from human HeLa cell by fluorescence turn on phenomena, i.e.; the diagnosis of non skeletal fluorosis could be executed by this technique. This patented technology was transferred to a small scale industry unit in presence of Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Honourable minister at Ministry of Science and Technology (India) and Ministry of Earth Sciences and Vice President, CSIR in November, 2016 during CSIR platinum jubilee techno fest.

The developed sensor kit show in Figure 2 has already been deployed for common people in several fluorosis affected areas. Several NGO’s from Northern India and southern India (Naandiwater, Hyderabad) has shown their interest to deploy the kit in their working area for quick prediction of dental fluorosis.

Corrosion Engineering:

    Corrosion of metallic surfaces is a global issue concerning its adverse affect on major industrial plants, infrastructures, automobile body panels and so on. Worldwide, all industries are facing problems related to corrosion. One of the largest expenditures concerned industries have to bear is the maintenance of the metallic materials from the adverse corrosive attack. Along with the detrimental effect of atmospheric corrosion, in several industries, acid solutions are widely used for de-scaling, acid pickling, cleaning of boilers, ore processing, oil well acidizing, removing mills and rusts from steel surfaces. During these processes acid solutions cleanse the metallic surfaces, but unexpectedly corrode the exposed surfaces of metal. In this ground, the main aim of our research is to develop environmental-friendly, easy to synthesize, reliable and cost-effective functional organic molecules having significant corrosion inhibition properties.

    In order to protect the metallic surfaces from the adverse environmental effects, various types of chromates, bisphenol based coating materials are widely used. Nevertheless, these coating materials leach out to environment and show its adverse effect to the living beings. In this perspective, environmental friendly coating material development is an active area of research. In order to develop environment friendly surface coating materials we have focused our attention towards the azomethine based epoxy resin, isocynate free polyurethane coating and most importantly naturally abundant vegetable oils as coating materials.

Waste Management:

From the very last decade amount of waste generation is increasing very significantly and spreading its adverse effect on environment and human health. Also the improper waste management makes this picture more critical. In this respect an eco-friendly and efficient technology is bare minimum necessity. On this ground utilization of plasma arc technology in safe waste disposal is a very efficient and environment friendly approach. This technology is capable of reducing the volume of waste around 99% and producing less toxic residues within the standard values of central pollution control board. A mini plant with capacity of 15kg/hr is just developed by CSIR-CMERI where the three plasma torches placed in plasma reactor to crack these wastes and convert into gas which goes through a closed system containing catalytic converter, redox reactor, scrubber and condenser to minimize the toxins present in gas. Finally, the gas burnt in a secondary incinerator and lead out through a chimney which are in standard mentioned in Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016.

Oil Spill Cleaning:

Oil spill due to several accidental situation shades a major toxic impact over the environment. Therefore, it is of high need to clean up spilled oils and oil like toxic solvents using some adsorbents. On that ground organic polymers are very useful as adsorbent material due to their hydrophobicity, non-toxicity, robust nature and eco-friendliness. Organic polymers can be synthesized easily and could be useful for oil or toxic solvents adsorption. It is highly impressive that there are several bio materials available in nature, generally treated as wastes can be used together with organic polymers in order to prepare composite materials. Those adsorbent will be highly beneficial for adsorption of oils.

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Harish Hirani (1460)

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