MADHYA PRADESH: Decades back, in 1928, legendary physicist Prof CV Raman propounded that molecular transitions caused by incident light would in-elastically scatter the light, which made him the first Asian scientist two years later to win the Nobel Prize in any branch of science.
It also served as the basis of the Raman Spectrometer, a scientific instrument which helps in identifying the vibration band and structural analysis of material which is applied in various fields, spanning from pharmaceuticals, and material sciences to Geology and Mineralogy and environmental and life sciences.
But even decades later, India had to largely depend on foreign countries, particularly Japan and Europe, for high-end Raman Spectrometers.
However, successfully taking up the challenge of reducing the country’s dependence on imports, more than 90 years after Prof CV Raman made the path-breaking discovery, researchers at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - Advanced Materials and Process Research Institute (AMPRI) in Bhopal have developed two genres of the high-end Raman Spectrometer in partnership with a Jaipur-based company.
Under the CSIR’s New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) as part of the Narendra Modi government’s larger umbrella of Make in India mission, the CSIR-AMPRI team has developed two variants of high-end Raman Spectrometer, which is cheaper and show up to 80% success rate when compared to the high-end spectrometers being imported by Indian institutions and industry till now.
The high-end Raman Spectrometer developed by CSIR-AMPRI in March 2022 had its first big institutional order in April 2022 itself, with the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata approached it. Subsequently, it has been installed successfully at Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT-Bhopal) and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER-Pune). It’s in the process of being installed at the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL-Pune).
According to sources at CSIR-AMPRI, Bhopal, many other institutions and industries from India and even industries from abroad are now making enquiries from the Jaipur-based company for the device.
Researchers at CSIR-AMPRI are also working on the PM’s vision of transforming waste-to-wealth.
Realizing that growing stockpiles of Alumina industrial waste called ‘red mud’ in India and across the world, which run into billions of tones, are becoming a major environmental hazard (particularly polluting soil and groundwater), researchers at AMPRI have successfully used the same toxic ‘red mud’ to develop lead-free X-Ray shielding tiles.
The private as well as govt has shown interest in utilizing the radiation shielding tiles, CSIR-AMPRI director Dr Avanish Kumar Srivastava said.
“The lead-free X-ray shielding red mud tiles are up to 40% cheaper than the existing lead lining walls till now fitted at X-ray centers across the country. Mass production of such tiles by the company to which the technology has been transferred will also result in creation of employment and workforce skilled in
the waste-to-wealth technology,” he said.