http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Pune/DST_funds_aerogel_research/articleshow/2024469.cms
DST funds aerogel research
10 May, 2007 l 0556 hrs IST l TIMES NEWS NETWORK
http://www.bhu.ac.in/science/physics/ons.htm
 Prof. O. N. Srivastava | PUNE: Scientists at the University of Pune (UoP) have developed an ultra lightweight aerogel material. The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has funded Rs 3 crore for a period of five years, to facilitate research on aerogel at the UoP in collaboration with the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi.
Prof O.N. Srivastava and his team at the BHU synthesised the CNT, while the aerogel using the CNT was developed by Sulabha Kulkarni, coordinator of the DST unit on nano-science at the UoP’s department of physics, and her student, Supriya Pandhe. |
Kulkarni is a noted Ph.D. guide, who has 200 research papers in international journals to her credit and has been working on this project for over six years. In the past, Kulkarni has worked on Defence Research and Development Organisation-commissioned research on silica aerogels that are transparent and heat insulated compared to the CNT aerogels.
She said a team at Pennsylvania University, US, came up with the most-recent aerogel variant, using CNT and polymer, in February.
The 15 mg aerogel could support 100 gm or 8,000 times more weight than its own body weight. In comparison, the aerogel developed at the UoP has much larger loadbearing capacity, she added.
According to Kulkarni, aerogel applications are as wide as in light-weight jackets for armed forces personnel and bridges in defence use, soundproof rooms, heat-retaining houses, foundries, packaging and electronic sensors.
The breakthrough gives a reason for the UoP to celebrate in terms of furthering varsity-level research. As it comes after a long gap, Jadhav conceded that the varsity doesn’t have much to show in terms of research breakthroughs.
Jadhav said the discovery can be seen as a beginning of UoP’s renewed thrust on research . "We will secure an independent certification for this material soon for the purpose of Indian patent and also try for publication in reputed international journals on nanotech," Jadhav said.
Developed way back in 1930, with silica and carbon being the content of the most common variant in use, research in aerogels got a push only after the international oil crisis of 1974 and the space programmes that developed subsequently.