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Bangalore: How many
atoms are required to keep gold shining? It was this question
asked by a student that made India's noted scientist C.N.R. Rao
take up research in nanotechnology that manipulates matter at
atomic and molecular levels.
"When I was teaching at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
in Kanpur 25 years ago, a bright student asked how many atoms were
required for gold to shine. I studied the element from 500 to 300
to 200 atoms. At 200 atoms, gold did not shine, it was just a
metal. That finding prompted me take up research in
nanotechnology," Rao said at a nanotech event in this tech hub
Thursday.
Recalling his quest for discovering the spin-offs of
nanotechnology, the next frontier in science, Rao said the
"golden" question was asked in the context of the Avogadros
Number, which is 6.022 141 99 X 10 raised to the power 23, named
after the French scientist Amadeo Avogadros (1766-1856).
"Two-three decades ago, nanotech was just an idea. Since then, the
niche science has grown manifold and has a bright future, as
evident from the discovery of graphene, a powerful carbon-based
allotrope," Rao told about 500 delegates at the fourth edition of
'Bangalore Nano' conference-cum-expo.
Noting that the 2010 Nobel Prize was awarded in physics for a
discovery in graphene, Rao said as a powerful carbon-based
element, graphine stores hydrogen.
"Initiation and mimic of graphene can find multiple applications
in the energy sector and environment," said Rao, who is also
chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council to the prime minister.
Physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were jointly
awarded the Nobel last year for ground-breaking experiments on
two-dimensional material graphene.
In the US, a large grant of $120 million was sanctioned to
California Institute of Technology and University of California -
Berkeley for producing hydrogen. In principle, hydrogen can be
used to run cars, planes and generate electricity.
"Plants decompose water using nano manganese and produce energy
for plants. Artificial photo-synthesis, if done in labs, has
tremendous possibilities in electronics. But there are several
challenges in this field," Rao added.
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