Seminars

The design and control of microstructural evolution is the key to the processing of materials ranging from semiconductors to metals to polymers. In the case of crystalline silicon and its alloys which are commonly used in the microelectronics industry nucleation and aggregation of point defects and impurities are responsible for the formation of a wide variety of nano- and microstructures. While these microstructures often are detrimental to electronic devices they can also be useful if their formation can be precisely controlled.

It is well established that above a certain threshold value for the molar mass Mc the terminal (zero shear) viscosity 0 of polymer melts scales with molar mass to the power 3.4. The strong increase of the viscosity with increasing molar mass is related to entanglement coupling and the presence of a physical entanglement network characterized by an average molar mass between the physical crosslinks Me between the macromolecules.

Sodium borohydride (SBH) and ammonia borane (AB) are promising hydrogen storage materials for PEM fuel cell power systems. To release hydrogen from these compounds thermolysis catalytic hydrolysis exothermic reactions with solid oxidizers or heat generated by additional reactive mixtures are usually employed. All the current methods have disadvantages which decrease the efficiency of hydrogen storage systems.

DNA microarrays are used for the simultaneous analysis of expression of thousands of genes. They have been used extensively to compare gene expression profiles between cancer and normal tissues with goals of (1) understanding the molecular etiology of disease and (2) identifying molecular biomarkers for diagnostic purposes. Cancer is a disease of heterogeneous etiology; hence we can expect significant biological variability between cancerous tissue samples from different patients. This can lead to situations where key genes are differentially expressed in only a subset of samples.

Abstract: Hydrogen gas is projected to be a promising energy carrier in the near future. Consequently its production storage and use have become subjects of intense research. Molecular hydrogen generated by biological means is emerging as one of the sustainable carbon-neutral alternatives to conventional fossil fuel. Our work focuses on bio-hydrogen production by yanothece a group of unicellular cyanobacteria that can fix atmospheric nitrogen. Cyanothece possess both the nitrogenase and hydrogenase enzyme systems implicated in biological hydrogen production.

Spatial variations in the concentration of a reactive solute in solution are often encountered in a catalyst particle and this leads to variation in the freezing point of the solution. Depending on the operating temperature this can result in freezing of the solvent on a portion of catalyst rendering that part of the active area ineffective. Freezing can occur by formation of a sharp front or a mush that separates the solid and fluid phases.

Introduction to LaTeX (Document Preparation System) and SciLab (Mat-lab type computing language and environment). This event is organised by Research Scholars Forum IIT Bombay

It is well established that above a certain threshold value for the molar mass Mc the terminal (zero shear) viscosity 0 of polymer melts scales with molar mass to the power 3.4. The strong increase of the viscosity with increasing molar mass is related to entanglement coupling and the presence of a physical entanglement network characterized by an average molar mass between the physical crosslinks Me between the macromolecules.

Abstract: The MSAT – II regulations active since January 1 2011 restricts the annual average benzene level in Gasoline sold in the USA (except California) to 0.62 % vol. Currently FCC gasoline comprises nearly 20 % of the gasoline pool in a typical refinery. Full range FCC gasoline contains 15-30 vol. % aromatics with around 2 vol. % benzene and 1000 – 2000 ppm sulfur. A narrow C6 heart cut fraction of the full range gasoline will therefore contain anywhere between 11 – 19 wt. % benzene and up to 500 ppm sulfur.

Design under unknown information needs to consider two forms variability of process operation over the life cycle of the process as well as uncertainty in the process model. These two sources affect the process differently and require a different treatment at the design stage. The optimal solution of these design problems also requires the application of large-scale process optimization strategies. This talk describes a two stage optimization strategy that includes both sources of uncertainty.