Postal Address: Institutionen för Materialvetenskap, KTH, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Visiting Address: Brinellvägen 23
Web page: http://www.met.kth.se

Division of Engineering Material Physics

Web page: http://www.met.kth.se/index.php?dfile=demp/home.php
Contact person: Professor K V Rao, phone: +46 (0)8 790 7771

Research related to South Asia

Prof. K.V. Rao is Research leader for the following projects, all funded by Vinnova, European Commission, Swedish Research Council and others, carried out at the Division of Engineering Material Physics:

• A network on nanostructured materials
• Advanced materials for future electronics – spintronics
• Advanced nanostructured thermoelectrics for space applications
• Deposition of nanostructured magnetic materials using ink-jet technology
• Force Microscopy studies of high performance nanophase materials
• High temperature superconductors Instrumentation for in-plane local susceptibility determination and imaging
• Magnetic large scale integrated systems
• Mechanics of outer hair cells as the basis for auditory function
• Novel magnetism at bulk glassy dimensions
• Novel multifunctional oxide sensor materials for monitoring environment
• High temperature superconductors.

More information to be found on http://www.met.kth.se/index.php?lang=sv&dfile=demp/projects.php

Prof. K.V. Rao participated in the SASNET workshop on ”The role of South Asia in the internationalisation of higher education in Sweden” held in Stockholm 28-29 November 2006, where he gave a presentation about the strong interaction with Indian universities that KTH and his own department has been involved in for many years. Prof. Rao made his presentation in the session about ”Sending students to South Asia”. Read Prof. Rao’s presentation at the workshop (as a pdf-file)

In November 2004 Prof Rao received SEK 650 000 as a three year grant (2005-07) from the Swedish Research Links programme (funded by Sida and the Swedish Research Council) for an project titled ”Novel Multifunctional Oxide Sensor materials for Monitoring Environment”. It was a collaborative project with the Theoretical Sciences Unit at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, India (contact person: Prof. Umesh V. Waghmare).

On the Swedish side Associate Professor Rajeev Ahuja from the Department of Physics, Uppsala University, was also involved in the project.
Summary of the project: The technology of Electronic Information Storage, and capabilities to control the environmental needs via Smart Sensors exploiting computers and novel microprocessors, has now reached even the remotest parts of the Globe. Future developments in electronics, called Spintronics, is predicted to introduce new functionalities to all current electronic components and thus form the basis of faster computers with much lower energy consumption. One important requirement for Spintronics to be meaningful is the need for above room temperature magnetic semiconductors. At KTH we have recently made a break through by discovering such a material (by doping ZnO with Mn ) which was published in October 2003 issue of Nature Materials. Almost simultaneously Prof. Waghmare from JNCASR, Bangalore, India, predicted on a theoretical basis, that such doped material can be a multifunctional versatile Sensor because of the enhanced piezo-electric property which is useful in developing a variety of transducers and sensors. We wish to combine our capabilities to develop novel sensors useful for future developments in electronic environmental monitoring. Exchange of ideas, visits, and strengthening our mutual complimentary expertise among theorists and experimentalists both at KTH and JNCASR will be the mode of co-operation.

• Dr. Lioubov Belova is also a scientist within the Division of Engineering Material Physics, working with projetcs related to nanotechnology. In November 2005 she received SEK 450 000 as a three year grant (2006-08) from the Swedish Research Links programme (funded by Sida and the Swedish Research Council) for another project to be carried out in collaboration with Indian partners. The project is titled ”Synthesis & Characterization of tailored magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical applications”. More information on the Swedish Research Links grants 2005.
The South Asian partner in the project was Professor R V Upadhyay at the Centre for Excellence in Nanotechnology of Nanomagnetic Particles-CENNP, Department of Physics, Bhavnagar University, Gujarat, India.
As part of this research project, the National Workshop on Nanotechnology & Nanoscience of Magnetic Particles for Biomedical Applications (NNMPBA-07) was held in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India, 29 January – 1 February 2007. It was the first workshop sponsored under the Swedish-Asia-Link programme. Prof. K.V. Rao and Dr. Belova from KTH will participated in the workshop, during which Prof. Rao gave a speech on “New trends in Nanoscience enabling novel technologies”. More information about the workshop (as a pdf-file).

At the 2009 MRS (Materials Research Society) Fall Meeting, held in Boston, USA, 30 November – 4 december 2009, Prof. K V Rao, Dr. Lioubov Belova, Dr. Shashi Kiran and Dr. Tarja Volotinen from the Division of Engineering Material Physics, KTH, presents a paper based on the Swedish Research Links programme funded research project mentioned above. The 2009 MRS fall meeting is a symposium with the theme ”Future Challenges and Prospects in Nanobiotechnology and Nanobiophotonics”. The paper is entitled ”A Photoluminescence Study on the Growth Kinetics of Gold Nanoparticles and Reducing Ability of Medicinal Plant Extracts”. It is a dynamic study of a process for recovering Gold (Au) in the form of nanoparticles from toxic solutions using medicinal plant extracts from South Kanara, India. This work was carried out by the above-mentioned researchers in collaboration with Dr. L D’Souza, Director for the Laboratory of Applied Biology, St Aloysius College, Mangalore, during the period April – May 2008. More information.

Abstract: Most of the printed circuit boards in computers, mobile phones, and compact electronic gadgets contain Gold or high purity Cu, or sometimes Ag contact stripes for wiring. These are junked in huge quantities every year with the failed units for various reasons. Often these precious contact elements are recovered by treating the boards with acids, and toxic chemical to dissolve them off. To recover this Au, from the solution (like say Auric acid) additional chemical processes that are not environmentally friendly.
Our paper is an environmentally friendly, inexpensive and non toxic way to recover Au in the form of nanoparticles using antioxidant medicinal plants from Western Ghats, India some of which have been identified from around Mangalore.
In our paper we show that we have recovered Au nano particles from a few nanometers to 100 nanometers or more enough to drop down in the solution because Au is heavy. Our paper is about the kinetics of the reduction process
and how fast we can get the Au-particles (a few seconds) and how the particles grow with time in the solutiion. We use dynamic in-situ photoluminescence measurements to show the kinetics of the activity. In principle, if we develop this technology it can be a good environmentally friendly way to commercialize Au nanoparticles, for textiles, high tech demands for plating various substrates with Au films etc. If we develop similar studies for other precious metals like high purity Cu, Ag it could be a good and self sustaining venture….

Division of Materials Process Science

Web page: http://www.met.kth.se/index.php?lang=sv&dfile=MatProcSci/home.php

Contact person: Professor Seshadri Seetharaman

The Division of Materials Process Science is also part of the Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering. It is headed by Prof. Seetharaman. He participated in the tour to India that a high-level delegation from KTH (including the Rector Anders Flodström) made to India in November 2002. There they met with partner institutes and representatives of the steel and automotive industry. The tour has since resulted in a number of formal agreements on Indo-Swedish research co-operation. Read the KTH report from the India tour (as a pdf-file).

Division of Applied Material Physics

Web page: http://valle.mse.kth.se:8080/amp/

Contact person: Associate Professor Anna Delin, phone: +46 (0)8 790 9043. Personal web page.

In November 2008 Dr. Delin was given SEK 550 000 as a three-year grant for an India related project titled ”Computational studies of the electronic, magnetic and transport properties of interfaces for nanospintronics applications ” to be carried out during the period 2009–11 from the Swedish Research Links programme (funded by Sida and the Swedish Research Council). The collaboration partner on the Indian side is Shobhana Narasimhan at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Pune.
Project abstract: Spintronics at the nanoscale studied using high-performance computing. All things around us in our everyday life, and even ourselves, are made up of atoms (many many billions even for the tiniest piece of matter) that can be glued together in a vast number of different ways. The “glue” consists of electrons – particles which have no volume but carry electric charge. Stuck in the middle of each atom there is a nucleus with the corresponding positive charge, making all matter neutral. The project aims to solve the equation governing the electrons – the Schrödinger equation which was discovered about 100 years ago. More information.