Department of Chemistry Seminar Announcement Date/Time/VenueTitle/Speaker 30 Mar (Wed) 4.30pm – S8 Level 3 Executive Classroom Nanotechnology Enabled Green Nose to Smell Mercury Professor Suresh K Bhargava Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) Australia Host: Professor J J Vittal About the Speaker All are Welcome Abstract Prof Bhargava is the Deputy Pro Vice- Chancellor (Int. Res. Links) and a University Distinguished Professor at School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He was the foundation Dean of School of Applied Sciences at RMIT till He is also on the Board of Directors of one of the Aditya Birla Group of Industries, India. He is an elected fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. Mercury is a common environmental pollutant that bioaccumulates and is neurotoxic. Elemental gaseous mercury has an average atmospheric residence time of 5.7 years before it is consumed by aquatic life and released into the food chain. The toxic metal mercury remains a threat to the environment and public health despite of number of efforts by the government bodies world- wide. Environmental contamination of Hg vapor by human activities has resulted from mining operations, smelting, industrial discharges, burning fossil fuels, waste incineration, coal thermal power stations and weapons production and medical disposal and are the latest target of federal and state clean air regulations. Breakthrough research undertaken by Professor Bhargava’s group at RMIT has used nanotechnology principles to form well defined gold nano-structured surfaces.. By applying these novel nano-structured surfaces to cheap mass sensitive transducer platforms, such as the humble Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM), a significant improvement in sensor repeatability and sensitivity has been achieved. For instance, sensors equipped with the gold nano- engineered surfaces have shown an approximate 180% sensitivity increase over non-modified surfaces when operating at temperatures up to ~90°C over many months of continuous testing. What is more promising is that these tests have been successfully conducted in the presence of ammonia and high humidity contaminated streams, which are representative of the concentrations found in Australian alumina refinery effluent streams. This talk will also discuss in details the novel techniques to engineer nano-surfaces for various other applications. Prof Bhargava’s research interests include environment and advanced materials, industrial chemistry, catalysis, gold nanoparticles, and nanoscience in biotechnology, abatement of air pollution, innovation in environmental technologies,and large scale industrial plants. His research in the field of Catalytic Wet oxidation was the catalyst for a number of acclaimed green technology innovations such as the removal of organics from Bayer Process by CWAO in alumina refineries, mercury detection and odor abatement from Alumina Refinery Condensate, rejuvenation of car exhaust catalyst, and waste treatment in magnesium sulphate from Nickel Laterite processing. He has three industry related patents and over 160 peer reviewed journal papers in prestigious journals, more than 100 conference papers and many more ( >60) industrial confidential reports.