9th MRS Trilateral conference on Advances in Nanomaterials: Energy, Water and Healthcare

The 9th MRS Trilateral conference on Advances in Nanomaterials: Energy, Water and Healthcare, was inaugurated on 22nd October 2018 at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru. Prof. G U Kulkarni, Director, CeNS, welcomed dignitaries and delegates from the three participating countries, namely, China, Singapore and India to the three-day event. This was followed by the inaugural remarks by Prof. C N R Rao, FRS, National Research Professor, JNCASR, Bengaluru, who stressed the importance of materials research not only in the energy, water and health sectors but also in the field of environment and climate changes that affect the living conditions in several cities like Delhi and Bejing. Prof. B V R Chowdari, President MRS Singapore, Prof. Suresh Das, President, MRS India and Prof. Hu Zheng, representing MRS China gave opening remarks which set the tone of the conference going. The conference had six sessions with seventeen invited talks and a poster session, wherein about thirty-five delegates presented their works related to the topic of applications of nanomaterials in water desalination and purification, water harvesting, solar cells and batteries for energy generation and storage, water splitting for energy generation, biomedical applications such as controlled drug delivery, treatment of abnormal scars, tissue adhesives etc.

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CeNS at IISF-2018

This year the researchers, Dr Ashutosh Kumar Singh, Dr Vivek Ramakrishnan and Mr Anamul Haque represented CeNS at the recently concluded India International Science Festival (IISF)-2018 held during 5-8 October 2018 at Lucknow, UP. They actively participated in the two events, namely, the Young Scientists Conference (5-6 Oct) and the Mega Science, Technology & Industry Expo (5– 8 Oct). At the conference the scientific contributions, “Affordable Smart Windows” by Dr Ashutosh, “Modulating the growth of metallic MoO2 nanostructures with various morphologies enabling it for electrochemical water activation” by Dr Vivek and “Internal Heterostructure of Anion Exchanged Cesium Lead Halide Perovskite Nanocubes” by Mr Anamul were presented. They showcased the R&D activities of CeNS through demonstrable prototypes and posters at the Expo. The CeNS stall attracted a large number of visitors from industry and academic institutions, and the prototypes were a great hit especially among the young students.

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Science Academies workshop on Emerging trends on Nano Science and NanoTechnology, 7 & 8 Sept 2018, Shivamogga

CeNS participated in the workshop on 'Emerging Trends in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology” organized by Jawaharlal Nehru National College for Engineering, Shivamogga. Prof. G U Kulkarni, Director, CeNS was felicitated by the organizers during the inaugural event for his contributions to Nanoscience and technology.

The workshop was sponsored by the Science Academies and three faculty members from CeNS, namely, Prof. G U Kulkarni, Dr. Geetha G Nair and Dr. Neena Susan John delivered lectures to graduate students, research scholars and young faculty of the college.

JNCASR: A new, robust form of gold

Researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru, have developed a new type of gold in the form of very small crystals — microcystallites. The microcrystal gold has been found to be nobler than gold — it do not dissolve in mercury and Aqua regia (a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid), and showed the least interaction with copper.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/jncasr-a-new-robust-form-of-gold/article24725763.ece

Nobler than the noblest

“All that glitters is not gold – but sometimes it really, really is. Researchers have made a new kind of gold crystal that is even more gold-like than regular gold.”, writes Michael Marshall in NewScientist citing the new discovery by Prof. G U Kulkarni, Director, CeNS and his group. For full story click on the link
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2173082-new-form-of-gold-is-much-golder-than-normal-gold/