The Hindu       26.12.2011

From waste to wealth and much more

Better power-to-weight ratio:At the production line in a car factory.
Cars now have their entire body built of carbon fibre composites, an
alternative to metals, prized by plane-makers for their lightweight
malleability.— Photo: Reuters

Several indices represent the prosperity of a people. A reliable one will be the types of materials they use.

Materials
can be classified in many ways. Traditional materials have been in use
for centuries. Advanced materials are new ones or modified forms of
traditional materials, which give superior performance in specific
applications.

The quest for innovative materials is
an unending process that beckons numerous researchers in diverse areas
of science. Advanced materials lead to improved processes and products,
which influence economic growth, environment, and quality of life.
Digital communication, sophisticated cyber world, and nanotechnology are
some of the applications that demand improved materials. Advanced
materials are in the early stages of their lifecycle. So there is room
for growth in their performance characteristics. Advanced materials
strategy has a symbiotic relationship with modern manufacturing strategy
— an instance of the shop floor and the laboratory complementing each
other.

A premier institution that develops innovative
technologies and products in the area of advanced materials is the
Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute (AMPRI), Bhopal-462
064; Web: www.ampri.res.in

It was started in 1981 as a
Regional Research Laboratory under the Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research in New Delhi. Later, it was moved to Bhopal. Its
original strength had been in the area of metallurgy and materials
science. The areas of research have been broadened to include:

Mineral processing

Environmental impact assessment

Water resource modelling

“Waste to wealth”

Problems related to agricultural, mining, sugar mill, and thermal power plant machinery

Health assessment

Improvement and failure analysis of engineering systems

Development of lightweight materials, components, products, and processes for the automobile sector

Finite element method simulation

The current activities of the AMPRI are in the following:

Lightweight materials

Nano-structured materials

“Waste to wealth”

CSIR-800

Lightweight materials

Metallic
materials: Aluminium metal matrix composites, foam and magnesium
alloys, and components thereof for different engineering applications.

Polymeric
materials: Work in the areas of polymeric and functionally graded
materials for various engineering applications. Material design and
synthesis, property characterisation, component development, and
demonstration of performance under actual working conditions. Material
development includes particulate as well as fibre-reinforced composites
(particulates are minute separate particles). A wide range from
synthetic organic and inorganic fibres to natural fibres for
reinforcement in thermoplastic as well as thermosetting resins.
Functional fillers such as silicon carbide, teflon and
ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene have been incorporated for
better wear resistance. Low-cost materials for flooring from industrial
wastes, such as red mud and fly ash.

Computer
simulation, modelling and design: For material, process, and components,
including die design and CAE-CAD-CAM integration. Also for forging,
rolling, extrusion, sheet bending, deep drawing, spring back, hole
flanging nozzle pullout, metal casting, structural optimisation,
fracture mechanics, impact and penetration mechanics, thin film growth,
nano-materials, and so on. Other areas of work include analysis of
spring-back in sheet metal bending, simulation of porthole die
extrusion, software development, mathematical modelling, and computer
simulation.

Nanomaterials

Nanostructured
materials: Good for use as engineering materials with improved
characteristics in terms of mechanical, physical, thermal, and wear
properties. Powder metallurgy and chemical routes are used for
synthesising nanostructured materials.

Microfluidics:
This is the handling of devices and processes that deal with volumes of
fluid as small as nanolitres or picolitres. Chemical separation methods
such as chromatography and electrophoresis are necessary for fast
analysis of complex mixtures on a very small scale. Innovative methods
for these are being evolved at the AMPRI. (Chromatography is a process
in which a chemical mixture carried by a liquid or gas is separated into
components as a result of differential distribution of the solutes as
they flow around or over a stationary liquid or solid phase.
Electrophoresis is a separation technique based on the mobility of ions
in an electric field.)

Waste to wealth

Recovery
from wastes: Removal of toxic heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions
using substrate materials made from low-grade natural minerals.
Development of glazing material from “drum filter cake,” which is a
waste from the zinc industry.

Shielding materials:
The application of high-energy electromagnetic radiations in medicine
(X-ray and CT scanner rooms and establishments, gamma radiation therapy
of cancer, etc.), and nuclear power plants poses challenges in terms of
safety. Lead, though conventionally used as a radiation shielding
material, is inherently toxic and does not provide effective shielding
against neutron radiation. Concrete has been used as a shielding
material against ã-ray radiation. But it is very thick and subject to
corrosion from depleted uranium. All these point to the need for the
development of non-toxic and eco-friendly radiation shielding materials.
A novel process for making advanced new radiopac materials has been
developed at AMPRI.

Wood substitute: Industrial
wastes such as red mud, fly ash, jarosite (hydrous sulfate of potassium
and iron), marble slurry dust, copper tailings, and natural fibres such
as jute have been used as fillers for developing polymer composites.
These have higher strength and greater resistance to corrosion than
wood. They are insensitive to attack by termites and rodents. The new
products have been used for door leaves, roofing sheets, panels, and
furniture.

CSIR 800

Sisal
fibre-based products and composites: Extensive work has been done in the
area of building materials based on natural fibre. This aims at saving
wood and replacing asbestos fibre that is likely to cause cancer. A
Natural Fibre Composite Development Centre has also been established at
the institute. Research work includes the development of a methodology
for mechanical extraction of fibres from leaves, for fibre treatment,
characterisation, and preparation of materials and products.