Getting to know IIT Madras

Ever since its inception in 1951, IIT Madras hasbeen at the forefront of innovation and is currentlyleading the technological sphere, having beenranked 1st in the NIRF rankings by MHRD, GOI forthe 4 th consecutive time. With the risingentrepreneurial trends across the globe, there hasbeen an expansion of the entrepreneurialecosystem in India as well. In many ways, this isreflective of the larger trend that we are seeinghere at IIT-Madras. Students are continuouslyengaged in trying to push their ideas beyond theirlabs, hostels and workspaces.

With centres such as Center for Innovation,programs such as Nirmaan and organizations suchas the IITM Incubation Cell working at full swing,there is little surprise therefore to see IIT- Madrasdominating the university campus entrepreneurialspace as is evident by the fact that 4 of the 5finalists in the recent campus entrepreneurshipcompetition conducted by Economic Times, werefrom IITM.

Entrepreneurship Cell at IIT Madrasbelieves that entrepreneurship is not justabout starting companies, but a pathwaytowards India’s socio-economicdevelopment.

To make students and faculty ‘entrepreneurial’ in every workthat they do. To enable them to solve global challenges, tonurture them and provide them with opportunities forexcellence.

E-Cell aims to unlock students’ latent inventive potential. Notonly do we show them the doors of opportunity but we alsoequip them to walk through it. Through our conference,social events, lectures, speaker engagements and workshops,we’re hoping to bring together everyone interested in thestartup world and to help students best utilize resources toform or join startups.

About E-Cell, IIT Madras

About Tata SteelThe world of Tata Steel is one without boundaries - growing,changing and challenging, a world that embraces differentskills, continuous innovation, sustainable growth and a betterquality of life.

At Tata Steel, we touch the lives of millions of people across theworld every day with the steel that we produce. From thevehicle you drive, to the house you live in; from the bridges,you cross, to the hand tools that you use; we strive to deliverunparalleled quality through our customised value-addedsolutions to make your life easier.

Established in Jamshedpur, India in the year 1907, Tata Steel ispart of the 150-year-old Tata Group. Bringing to reality thevision of its Founder, J. N. Tata, who inspired the steel andpower industry in India. Tata Steel, today, is the 10th largeststeel manufacturer in the world (source: worldsteel) with anannual crude steel capacity of 27.5 million tonnes per annum(MnTPA) as on March 31, 2018 and is known to be thehallmark of corporate citizenship and business ethics. Thisvision also led to the development of India’s first industrial cityat Jamshedpur.

Tata Steel is one of the world's most geographicallydiversified steel producers, with operations and commercialpresence across the world. The Group recorded a consolidatedturnover of US $20.41 billion (INR 133,016 crore) in FY18.Tata Steel Group is spread across five continents with anemployee base of over 65,000.

Tata Steel operates with a completely integrated value chainthat extends from mining to the manufacturing andmarketing of finished products. In India, our downstreambusiness activities are structured into strategic businessunits such as Ferro-Alloys and Minerals, Tubes, Wires,Bearings, Agrico, Industrial By-products Management andTata Growth Shop.

Tata Steel’s sustainable growth aspirations are driven byinnovation, guided by values and supported by the effortstowards continuous improvements in the processes, buildingefficiencies and adding value to the products & solutionswhile meeting varied requirements.

For more information, please visit: www.tatasteel.com

Tata Steel Graphene Business & Tata Steel Advanced Material Research Centre

At Tata Steel, we are actively pursuing research inadvanced materials. After collaborating with industry andacademia for a few years, we opened the Tata Steel GrapheneBusiness in 2016 at Jamshedpur to identify applications andestablish new businesses, production units, supply chainsand markets.

Two Tata Steel Advanced Material Research Centres(TSAMRC) have also been established, one at Chennai incollaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras(IITM), and the other at Bengaluru, in collaboration with theCenter for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS). Theobjective of these Centres is to work closely with academiaand other centres of expertise to strengthen the portfolio ofadvanced material research and its applications.

About MaterialNext

With the growing popularity of graphene and otheradvanced nanomaterials around the world, it isimportant to come up with solutions to theindustrial problem that occur during manufacturingand commercialization, not to mention the earlydevelopment stage these potential technologies areand there is a lot to be figured out especially in theR&D stage.

MaterialNEXT hosted by TSAMRC in collaborationwith IIT Madras is a chance for the buddingresearchers, technology developers and enthusiastsin this field to propose, produce and present theirsolution model to experts for the posed industrialchallenges.

MaterialNEXT evolves through a 3-phase route withinteractive mentoring sessions by the industryspecialist and professors who are working in thisfield, at each stage. Finally, the top three solutions &teams get recognized & rewarded.

Phases

Selection phase:

Participants in a team (2 to 3 max.) have to submit theirproposals (first approach towards the actual solution inthe form of a PDF/Poster. These will be evaluated by theexperts under certain criterion. Selected teams would beinvited for a conference to discuss more with theirassigned mentors to launch into next level.

Performance phase:

The selected teams will start working on theirproposals under the constant guidance of mentors(Professors and industrial experts) using availablefacilities, as per plan.

In this phase of the competition, all the performingteams will present their solutions which will beevaluated by eminent panels of judges and ‘top five’teams will move to the final round.

Evaluation phase:

Grand Finale:

After reiterating on their solutions with feedbackreceived during the evaluation phase, top five’ teamswill compete in the grand finale to decide the winner.

Challenge-1Title: Conductive Composites without Conductive Polymers

Mentor: Dr Sandip Ghosh (Tata Steel)

Background:

Electricity is one of the most essential components ofeveryday life in modern society as it is used to runmanufacturing and processing machinery in industry,transportation, communication devices, medical instruments,military equipment, and so on.

Therefore, the development of electrically conductive materialhas become one of the most important focal points of researchin material science and engineering.

For many years, polymers have been considered as insulatorsof electricity and widely used as insulating materials.However, polymers have recently gained considerableattention as basic conductive materials by incorporatingconductive fillers. Such composites can potentially replacemetals or other conventional conductive materials in manyapplications including electromagnetic interference (EMI)shielding, electrostatic dissipation (ESD), and bipolar plates -for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC),electronic enclosures, composite electrostatic precipitators,anti/de-icing heaters for aircraft, and anti-static flooring,countertops, and truck bed liners.

There are several advantages of replacement with plasticconductive. First, polymers have great chemical stability andare highly corrosion resistant. This is very beneficial toapplications where materials are employed in chemicallyharsh conditions with high acidity, for instance as in PEMFC.Second, a significant weight reduction can be achieved whenmetals are substituted by conductive plastics, a crucial issuefor personal communication devices and automotive partsfor fuel economy. Third, the use of plastics results inconsiderable improvements in formability. It is not easy toform metals into desired shapes and it is often expensive.

Number of materials have been added to plastics to produceconductive composites. Metal fibres and particles comprisedof aluminium, steel, iron, copper, and nickel coated glassfibres have been used. Further, the number of carbonaceousmaterials including carbon black, carbon fibre, graphite, andcarbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been employed to increaseelectrical conductivity. Among these carbon materials,however, graphene exhibits the uppermost performance in arange of properties, such as exceptional carrier mobility atroom temperature (~250,000 cm2V-1s-1), mechanicalstrength (Young’s modulus of ~1 TPa), electricalconductivity (~6000 Scm-1), thermal conductivity (~5000Wm-1K-1), and large surface area (~2600 m2g-1). When theconcentration of these fillers exceeds a certain level, thefiller particles come into contact with one another, forming acontinuous path for electrons to travel. This certainconcentration is called a percolation threshold.

Conventionally, thermoplastic polymer composites have beenwidely fabricated via melt compounding, which consists ofmelt extrusion followed by injection or compression mouldingor other processing techniques depending on the propertiesand purpose of materials. In this technique, engineering plasticsserve as a polymer matrix and additives are embedded andincorporated into the polymer matrix usually by means of twin-screw extrusion. This method is broadly employed in theindustry due to process easiness, efficiency, and low cost.

In recent years, three-dimensional graphene foam consisting ofgraphene sheets or CNTs have been developed. This three-dimensional structure exhibits high surface area, greataccessible pore volume, and high conductivity at extremely lowdensity. Due to its numerous advantages, graphene foam hasbeen recognized to have great potential in a variety ofapplications, such as energy storage devices, sensors,absorbers, and composite materials. Polymer nanocompositesbased on graphene foam cannot be fabricated by conventionalmethods such as extrusion and injection moulding; instead,resins are infiltrated into the graphene foam. In this way, theunique structure of graphene foam is not compromised by theprocessing and the excellent properties of graphene can berealized.

To summarize, there are numerous advantages of usingconductive polymer nanocomposites, and different kinds ofconductive fillers and fabrication methods can be used forproduction. The selection of conducting fillers and fabricationmethod is greatly dependent upon the property of interest to beimproved and the application of the final composite.

Develop electrically conductive polymernanocomposites (volume resistivity reduced from 1016

ohms to less than 103 - 105 ohms) by integratingpolymers with a variety of carbonaceous materials viatwo distinct fabrication techniques:

i. infiltration of a three-dimensional filler matrix withpolymer- the main goal is to construct an advancedinterconnected graphene network for infiltration andachieve a high consistency in conductivity underelongation.

ii. polymer compounding with graphene-basedconductive fillers- the main goal is to obtain the lowestpercolation threshold possible and improve bothelectrical and mechanical properties of composites.

Target

Challenge-2

Title: Handkerchief based Water Filters

Mentor: Dr Arunabh Ghosh (Tata Steel)

Background:

An easy and cost-effective technique developed for the usageof seawater as drinking water is undoubtedly a much-neededadvancement which would serve mankind immensely. Recentresearch and developments along this direction are focused tocost-effective approaches, like the use of filter columns basedon capacitive desalination (under electrical bias) and/ornanoporous structural absorptions (without electrical bias).These filter columns would absorb salts from seawater andthus reduces the amount of salts within the water and hencethe water becomes drinkable. However, this is generally acumbersome setup with filter columns, water inlets/outletsand other electrical connections. Because of that, it can only bedone in the form of an installed water treatment plant; at theleast, small size filter stations would be required. Therefore,these are limited by mobility and hence the abundant amountof seawater cannot be used effectively.

However, this mobility limitation may find an excellentsolution through the route of old and traditional waterfiltration system, which is a cloth based water filtrationsystem. Cloth is the simplest water filter, traditionally used forhundreds of years. It filters out instantly as soon as you pourwater through it. It is foldable and easy to store and use.

However, the limitation of a cloth based filter is, it can onlyfilter particulates of sizes tens of micron to a millimetre, i.e.,the muds or other particles from the water. It cannotseparate out impurities of smaller sizes, such as salt ions,which are a matter of discussion when we talk about removalof salts from seawater and to make it drinkable.

However, thanks to advanced techniques, like the design andprinting of different type of materials on cloths made itpossible to alter the physical and chemical properties ofcloths while retaining all other advantages like mobility,bendability, foldability etc. These materials can be rangedfrom a different type of nano-materials to conductive/porousinks, which with/without the help of electrical bias canseparate out salts from seawater. Here the challenge is todevelop a filter which is simple as a handkerchief and canprovide drinkable water from sea- water.

Target:

Develop a capacitive desalination filter, which is just apiece of cloth, on which electrodes are fabricated bycoating of carbon/metal based ink. This would be areusable filter which can be cleaned back from salts forreuse, by reversing the voltage bias. The efficiency of thefilter can be tuned for a water flow rate.

Challenge-3

Title: Sweat Capture and Analysis (SCAn)

Mentor: Dr. Chandrani Pramanik (Tata Steel)

Background:

Although blood analysis is considered the gold standard forbiometric analysis but testing with blood is invasive. Thecommonly available techniques are painful and require wellestablished labs for analysis. It is far more difficult fordoctors to perform continuous monitoring of blood overhours or days. Sweat diagnostics, on the contrary, are anemerging non-invasive alternative with chemical markersthat can provide whole day human health monitoring. Thepossibilities here are far more useful than saliva or tearsbased analysis. For example, constant change in theconcentration of various chemicals in the body fluid can berecorded from sweat.The current project will consider eccrine sweat gland(odourless, found in the skin with the highest density onpalm and soles) secretion which occurs during emotionalstress making. Secretion of the gland is a sterile diluteelectrolyte solution with primary components of (1)Bicarbonates, (2) Potassium, (3) Sodium Chloride, (4)Glucose, (5) Pyruvate, (6) Lactate, (7) Cytokines, (8)Immunoglobulins, (9) Antimicrobial peptides (dermcidinetc.) Common sweat diagnostic tests include testing of cysticfibrosis (change in concentration of ions), consumption ofthe illicit drug, dehydration in athletes, stress handling withtracking changes in hormones such as cortisol.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder that affectsmostly the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys,and intestine. Long-term issues include difficulties inbreathing and coughing up mucus because offrequent lung infections. Cystic fibrosis affects thecells that produce mucus, sweat and digestive juices.It causes these fluids to become thick and sticky.They then plug up tubes, ducts and passageways. Thecurrent project will be focusing on detecting theconcentration of ions in sweat to diagnosepossibilities and current condition of Cystic fibrosis.As the concentration of Na+ ions in sweat rangesbetween 10-100mM it is easier to detect than otheranalytes. Greater than or equal to 60 mM/L sodiumor chloride ion is likely to be CF diagnosed.

Target

Develop a concept/prototype device to sense ionconcentration in sweat using any printedelectrode.

Challenge-4

Title: Use Graphene as a Packaging Barrier

Mentor: Dr. Trilochan Bagarti (Tata Steel)

Background:

Aim of this project is to develop packaging material. Paper,polyethene terephthalate (PET) etc. are commonly usedpackaging material. To maintain freshness of edibles, foodpackaging material should be impermeable to moisture andwater. Paper or PET alone cannot provide moistureresistance property. These films are deposited withaluminium to achieve moisture resistance. Here, the visionis to replace aluminium in packaging which would lead toimproved recyclability and eco-friendly packagingMaterials.

Graphene is known as a very good impermeable material.Graphene cannot be grown directly on flexible substrateslike PET film. Graphene can be grown on Cu foil using CVDand can be transferred on PET film. This process iscumbersome cannot be scaled for commercial production.However, PET can be coated with graphene flakes usingother processes such as wet spin coating or dry/wetpowder coating. There could be various processes, to makecoated graphene films impermeable, such as stitching offlakes, edible binders or by controlling packing density etc.

The project objective can be achieved by orientingthe thin graphene flakes, combined with thecrystallization at the grain boundary for stitchingactions. Various processes have been developed toprovide desired orientation when graphene is coatedon flexible substrates. By controlling lamellararchitecture and rheology, thin and reproduciblegraphene coating with oriented flakes are possible.Stitching of the material between the sheets and atgrain boundary may lead to improved barrierproperties. Ultimately, the challenge here is to find asuitable process to coat graphene flakes to form animpermeable film on flexible substrates .

Target

Develop graphene-based packaging material,graphene-coated films with excellent adhesionproperty and impermeability to water and oxygen tomore than 90%.

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