Ideas born to ideals with an ability to visualize their future implications always have a profound impact on the human progress. An idea of Late Professor Richard Feynman, which was propagated through his phenomenal talk entitled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" in the late 50’s had initiated the possibility of synthesizing materials by picking and choosing few atoms. The materials predicted by Feynman have a size of a nano-meter (i.e. 10^-9 m), named as nano-materials. These nano-materials show the extraordinary properties with a combination of the extremes like high strength and low density, fewer amounts of reactants with very high reaction rates and a high amount of information compressed into a less volume of data storage devices.

The foundations of nano-medicine started with a fantasy given out by Feynman as “What will happen when anybody could one day swallow the surgeon?” He explained that “When you put the mechanical surgeon inside the blood vessel and it goes into the heart and 'looks' around, finds out which valve is the faulty one and takes a little knife and slices it out." After almost five and half decades of this intuitive visualization by Feynman, the nano-medicine is presently using the nano-electronic biosensors and nano-drug delivery systems, bringing the fantasy into reality. The present day drug delivery is targeted to reach the specific organs in a human body. Nano medicine is also swiftly moving towards future applications of molecular nanotechnology such as biological machines.

Dr. Masood Ahmad, a faculty member of Applied Chemistry section of the Department of Applied Sciences had given an invited talk on “Nano-Materials for various applications” at an international conference entitled “The World summit on Nanotecnology and Nanomedicine Research (Nanomed-2016)” conducted in Dubai on 28 and 29, November, 2016. The conference was well attended by eminent scientists and academicians working in the field of Nanotechnology. The details of the conference can be browsed from the web link provided below.

https://www.clytoaccess.com/world-summit-nanotechnology-and-nanomedicine-research/speakers

Dr. Masood’s talk highlighted the photocatalytic properties of the activated carbon obtained from the natural sources and activated carbon-TiO2 composites containing the Rhodamine B, Methylene blue and Methyl orange as target pollutants. He had discussed about the procedures involved in the better percentage removal/degradation of the above pollutants from the waste water using low cost activated carbon and AC- TiO2 composites. He had also presented a discussion on the activated carbon obtained from the seeds of the dates, shells of walnut and coconuts that are used as low cost potential adsorbents. His talk also had a discussion on the photocatalytic studies that are carried out using the commercially available titanium dioxide (TiO2) as a photocatlyst. He had clearly explained the effects that are observed with different weight percentages of activated carbon-TiO2 composites and their solutions irradiated with 250 W UV lamps in a dark room.

He had convinced the audience that the data obtained from adsorption isotherm fits to a Langmuir adsorption isotherm in the concentration range of 20 to 80 ppm. He had concluded that the kinetic data revealed an adsorption of these dyes, which was correctly fitted to a first order kinetic equation. He had also presented that the particle size of the AC was found to be in the range of 20-40 nm as measured with a scanning electron microscope. He had stated that the BET surface area of the synthesized AC was found to be > 380 m2/g, showing a type-I N2 adsorption.

Dr. Masood had also presented that the nano-crystalline composite anode and nano-crystalline (GDC) gadolinium doped ceria (Ce0.9Gd0.1O2-δ), electrolyte materials were successfully synthesized by a citrate precursor method, whereas the La0.8Sr0.2Co0.2Fe0.8O3 (LSCF) was synthesized by the conventional solid state method and was also used as a cathode material in the present studies. He had shown that the average crystallite size of the anode materials was found to be in the range of 5-15 nm as obtained through the transmission electron microscopy. He had stated that the three cells are successfully fabricated. He had explained that the electrochemical performance of the single cells with the configuration NiO-Ce0.9Ln0.1O2-δ (Ln = La, Sm and Gd) (anode) // Ce0.9Gd0.1O2-δ (electrolyte) // La0.8Sr0.2Co0.2Fe0.8O3 (LSCF) (cathode) was evaluated by using the humidified hydrogen as the fuel and the air as the oxidant. He had finally concluded that the single cell containing NiO-Ce0.9Gd0.1O2-δ nano composite as anode showed a better performance with the maximum power density of 302 mW cm-2 and an open circuit voltage of 1.012 V at 500 °C.

Dr. Masood Ahmad expressed his profound thanks to Dr. Mohammed Ali Oueslati, Head of the Department of Applied Sciences, and also to Dr. Wafa Mustafa Al Lawati the Head of section of Applied Chemistry, and all the other departmental colleagues.

This activity was encouraged by department of applied sciences in order to meet the partial requirements of Goal-6 of the strategic plan: “We will encourage opportunities for applied Research and Consultancy. The support for this activity is extended by the HoD and DC of applied sciences to promote the staff participating in the research-oriented events like the present international conference.

INTRODUCTION, COMMENTARY, COMPILATION & EDITED BY:
Dr. C. Rama Chandra Prabhu

CREDIT FOR INFORMATION & PHOTOS:
Dr. Masood Ahmad