Four decades of research in solid state chemistry

Solid state chemistry was in its infancy when the author got interested in the subject. In this article, the author outlines the manner in which the subject has grown over the last four decades, citing representative examples from his own contributions to the different facets of the subject. The various aspects covered include synthesis, structure, defects, phase transitions, transition metal oxides, catalysts, superconductors, metal clusters and fullerenes. In an effort to demonstrate the breadth and vitality of the subject, the author shares his own experiences and aspirations and gives expression to the agony and ecstacy in carrying out experimental research in such a frontier area in India. Distinguished Materials Scientist Award Lecture presented at the MRSI meeting, Trivandrum on February 9, 1993. Professor C N R Rao, born on June 30, 1934 in Bangalore, received the M. Sc. degree in Physical Chemistry from Banaras Hindu University in 1953, the Ph.D degree from Purdue University, USA in 1958 and the D.Sc. degree from the University of Mysore in 1960. He was a research scholar at IIT, Kharagpur (1953–54), Lecturer at the Indian Institute of Science (1959–63), Associate Professor (1963–64) and Professor (1964–76) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He was the first Head of the Chemistry Department as well as the first Dean of Research at IIT, Kanpur. He moved back to the Indian Institute of Science in 1976 where he was founder Chairman of the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit and the Materials Research Laboratory till 1984, when he became the Director of the Institute. He has been President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore since its founding in 1989. He was President of the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences as well as the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. He was Commonwealth Professor at the University of Oxford and Nehru Professor at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of over 800 research papers and has authored/edited 30 books pertaining to solid state chemistry, spectroscopy, molecular structure, surface science and chemical education. He is a member of the editorial boards of over 15 international journals and is the founder-editor of the Bulletin of Materials Science. He is Honorary Professor at the University of Wales, Cardiff (UK) and Adjunct Professor at the Pennsylvania State University. Of the many honours received by Professor Rao, mention may be made of the Marlow Medal of the Faraday Society, London (1967), Bhatnagar Prize (1968), Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship (1973), Padma Shri (1974), Sir C V Raman Award of the University Grants Commission (1975), Centennial Foreign Fellowship of the American Chemical Society (1976), Federation of the Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Prize (1977), S N Bose Medal of the Indian National Science Academy (1980), Royal Society of Chemistry (London) Medal (1981), P C Ray Medal of the Indian Chemical Society (1984), Padma Vibhushan (1985), Nehru Award for Science (1988), Modi Award for innovative science (1989), Hevrovsky Gold Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy (1989), Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London (1989), Meghnad Saha Medal of INSA (1990), CSIR Golden Jubilee Prize in physical sciences (1991), Blackett Lectureship of the Royal Society (1991), K K Barooah Foundation Award for Science (1992) and Goyal Prize in Chemistry (1993). Professor Rao is a Fellow of the Science Academies in India and of the Royal Society, London. He is a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Member of the American Academy of Science and Arts, the Russian Academy of Science as well as the Czech, Polish, Serbian and Slovenian Science Academies. He is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and a founder fellow of Third World Academy of Sciences (of which he is now Vice President). He is an honorary member of the Materials Research Societies of Japan and South Korea and of the International Academy of Ceramics and honorary fellow of Institution of Engineers and IETE. He has received D.Sc. (honoris Causa) from 22 Universities. He was a member of the first National Committee on Science and Technology and later of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Union Cabinet. He was Chairman of the Science Advisory Council to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.     

A second ceramic age—A new materials frontier

A second ceramic age started in the mid-twentieth century as a new, exciting materials frontier. Electroceramics with phenomenally wide range of electrical resistivity (spread over 30 orders of magnitude) span insulators, semiconductors, metal-like conductors, ionic conductors, and, recently, superconductors. They also include ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, pyroelectrics and electro-optics beside ferrites. Advances in electroceramics have been fascinating and rapid, leading to unprecedented rates of industrial growth. Age-old limitations of poor mechanical strength and brittleness of ceramics are being overcome by outstanding toughness and strength achieved in zirconiabased ceramics exploiting the martensitic transformation at the tetragonal-monoclinic phase change. The dimensional changes at this transition which prevented the use of zirconia earlier has now been turned into a mechanism for toughening ceramics to significant levels. Ceramics with near-zero overall thermal expansion coefficient offer new opportunities to science and industry. Distinguished Materials Scientist of the Year Award Lecture presented at the MRSI meeting, New Delhi, on February 9, 1991. Professor E C Subbarao, born on 8 August 1928 in Narsapur, Andhra Pradesh received his B.Sc. Tech degree in Glass Technology from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi in 1949, his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA in 1952 and 1953 and his Ph.D. degree in Ceramic Technology from the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA in 1957. He was employed by the Parry and Co. Ltd., Ranipet, TN from 1949 to 1951 and as a Research and Fellow Engineer by Westinghouse Research Laboratories, Pittsburgh, Pa, USA from 1956 to 1963. Joining the Metallurgical Engineering Department of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1963 as an Associate Professor, he continued as a Professor from 1964 to 1981. He is the Founder-Director of the Tata Research Development and Design Centre, Pune since 1981. At IIT, Kanpur, he organised the Metallurgical Engineering Department as its first Head from 1963 to 1967 and the Inter-disciplinary Program in Materials Science as its first Convenor from 1971 to 1975. He was also the first Dean of Faculties at IIT, Kanpur from 1966 to 1972. Professor Subbarao published or edited nine books and published over 140 papers. He was elected a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian Institute of Ceramics, and the (International) Academy of Ceramics. He has been awarded the National Metallurgists Award, the Homi Bhabha Award in Applied Science, and the Varshnei Memorial Award.     

Microstructural evolution of N–O–S self-doped porous carbons based on heteroatomic migration for supercapacitor electrodes

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - N?O?S self-doped porous carbons (FAKC-T), possessing considerable specific surface areas (SSA,...     

Advances in Taylor Vortex Flow: A report on the Fourth Taylor Vortex Flow Working Party meeting

A meeting of the Taylor Vortex Flow Working Party was held at the University of Karlsruhe from 20–26th May, 1985. It was attended by fifty-three engineers, mathematicians, physicists and chemists from Australia, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, U.S.A. and West Germany. During the colloquium, twenty-three papers were presented and discussed. The contributions covered the whole range of the subject including end-and initial-effects, new geometries, new working fluids and also wavy mode and time-dependent Taylor vortex flows. This report gives brief summaries of the papers presented.     

Effect of configurational entropy on dielectric properties of high-entropy perovskite oxides (Ce0.5,K0.5)x[(Bi0.5,Na0.5)0.25Ba0.25Sr0.25Ca0.25]1−xTiO3

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - A new kind of high-entropy perovskite oxides (Ce,K)x[(Bi,Na)BaSrCa]1?xTiO3 (x-CKBNBSCTO) were synthesized by using a traditional...     

An Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Design for Sophomores at Purdue University

Universities play a key role in developing future engineers who understand the full scope of the product realization process, and are well equipped to produce effective, creative solutions to open-ended problems. A key step toward instilling the problem-solving mind-set in students is to lay the proper foundation early. Thus, a new cornerstone course, Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Design, has been developed in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University to bridge the gap between the freshman science and mathematics courses, and the more traditional mechanical engineering core courses such as thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and machine design. This paper presents the goals of the new sophomore course, some details of its implementation, and results of the first three offerings. The primary goal of the course is to teach the students effective strategies for solving problems that have many acceptable solutions. This goal is met by a mixture of design theory presentations and design practice in a carefully guided semester-long project. Distinction is made throughout the course between effective problem-solving strategies for single-solution problems, common in math, physics, and chemistry courses for example, and multiple-solution problem-solving strategies. Results from the first three offerings of this course indicate that it is changing the way students approach problems in their later courses. Plans for future revisions of the course are also included.     

Preparation,properties, and photocatalytic mechanism of In2.77S4/BiVO4 heterostructure for tetracycline degradation

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - A cauliflower-like In2.77S4 has been synthesized using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a surfactant, and the In2.77S4/BiVO4 composite...     

Mixed-valent copper chalcogenides fabricated through the underpotential electrochemical oxidation of copper substrate

Journal of Materials Science - Electrochemical oxidation of copper substrate in a S2? containing alkaline solution was investigated in this research, establishing a green procedure for the...     

Engineering forensics at Youngstown State University

Buildings collapse, vehicles crash, cranes and bridges collapse. Why? Who is responsible? Forensic engineers must analyze failures to determine causes, origins, and legal responsibilities of accidents, fires, and explosions. This is the subject of a new course offered in spring 2005 at Youngstown State University (YSU) entitled Engineering Forensics Using the Scanning Electron Microscope. The course included a lab in which undergraduate students conducted failure analysis investigations involving the use of the scanning electron microscope and the energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer. The creation of this course was a collaborative effort between the Forensic Science and the Materials Engineering Programs at YSU. This paper describes how this course was forged from a combination of the principles of forensic science with engineering failure analysis techniques.     

Tribute Professor Andrew Keller

This special issue acknowledges the seminal contribution of Professor Andrew Keller to polymer science and brings together contributions from his many colleagues and friends as a tribute to his memory. It is particularly appropriate that the Journal of Materials Science publishes such a memorial, as Andrew played a key role in the foundation and development of the Journal to its present position at the international forefront of the field. Andrew was a member of the enlightened group of Editors, chaired by Robert Cahn, which launched Journal of Materials Science in 1966. At that time, the concept of Materials Science as an integrated discipline covering the structure, properties processing and application of all materials was novel. From the outset, Andrew was responsible for nurturing and encouraging the submission of polymer papers and for ensuring appropriate refereeing, much of which he performed personally or through his group in Bristol. Given his enthusiasm and insight, many authors found their papers considerably improved by the quality of the refereeing process.     

Giant strains of 0.5% accompanying polarization extension and polarization rotation in (Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3–PbTiO3–Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3 ternary system

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Giant electrostrain (~?0.5% @ 7 kV/mm) in a new...     

Synthesis of polydiphenylamine nanostructures via microwave and ultra-sonication method for supercapacitor performance

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Polydiphenylamine (PDPA) finds many applications as a conducting polymer due to its unique properties. Herein, we report a facile synthesis...     

The size of science in the old Nigerian Universities — A preliminary analysis

The scientific productivity of six old Universities in Nigeria has been computed over the period 1970–79. The order of contribution is by University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University, Universities of Ife, Nigeria, Lagos and Benin. While there is a real growth in Scientific research in Nigeria as a whole, some of the Universities have problems which have put their research efforts on a downward trend. A new order of Scientific contributions by the Universities appears to be emerging. Constant Scientific growth analysis will help the new bodies involved in formulating and coordinating Science policy in Nigeria.     

Integrating Design Across the Engineering Curriculum: A Report From the Trenches

Abstract The emphasis from ABET to integrate the design experience across the curriculum has initiated a call for action to engineering departments across the country. This challenges engineering educators to include design in a wide variety of engineering courses and to prevent this emphasis from foreshadowing the subject material of each course. A comprehensive approach is needed where the design work is not a separate entity, but rather is an additional tool which can be used to teach the fundamentals of engineering. This paper reports on the advances of one institution in responding to the call to integrate design across the engineering curriculum. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) has established a design philosophy that treats design education as a developmental process to be practiced during each of the four undergraduate years. To put that philosophy into practice, the USCGA has restructured the engineering curriculum to ensure that students experience design content in their courses each year. This viewpoint of design as a developmental process is consistent with the broad educational objectives of the institution. This paper presents examples of design work from courses in each year of the students' education to illustrate the variety of design problems used to incorporate design across the curriculum. The experiences at the U. S. Coast Guard Academy have been positive and indicate the design across the curriculum initiative can be implemented without drastically impacting faculty workload.     

Color tunning and temperature-dependent photoluminescence properties of Sr0.3Ca0.7−x−y(MoO4)2: xDy3+, yEu3+

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - A series of Sr0.3Ca0.7?x?y(MoO4)2: xDy3+, yEu3+ phosphors with a tunable color was prepared by the conventional co-precipitation...     

Pressure dependence of the roton spectrum in liquid helium

We suggest consistency checks on neutron scattering data on liquid helium under pressure. The theoretically calculated static structure functionS(k|P) leads to pressure dependence of the roton gap, momentum, and curvature in general agreement with experiment.Work supported in part by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. GP-29130 and through the Materials Research Center of Northwestern University.Resident Student Associate at Argonne National Laboratory, Summer 1972 and 1973.Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow.     

Sintering behaviors,microstructure and dielectric properties of Ce0.5Nd0.5O1.75 ceramic at microwave frequencies

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - A new temperature-stable Ce0.5Nd0.5O1.75 ceramics were synthesized by the conventional solid-state reaction method, and its sintering...     

Integrated system of databases on the properties of inorganic substances and materials

An integrated system of databases on the properties of inorganic substances and materials has been developed, currently combining the database of the A.A. Baikov Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, and an AtomWork database on the properties of inorganic substances, developed at the National Institute for Materials Science (Japan). This system is developed as an information service for specialists and for computer-aided design of new inorganic compounds, which was supported by an elaborate information-analytical system. The results of application of this system for compound design that have not yet been synthesized are presented.     

Investigation of structural,luminescence, and anti-bacterial properties of novel Zn1−xEuxAl2−yO4Sry phosphor

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - In this research work, we synthesized novel zinc aluminate (Zn1?xEuxAl2?yO4Sry) sky bluish phosphors at 500 °C via...     

The influence of nickel substitution on the structural and gas sensing properties of sprayed ZnFe2O4 thin films

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - A comparative study of spray-deposited NixZn1?xFe2O4 (x?=?0 to 0.5) thin films has been performed specifically on their...