Chapter 6. Nanoscience research in India: Recent contributions (2012–2013)

Abstract

There has been remarkable progress in the field of nanoscience and technology during the last couple of years across the world. Indian scientists have made significant impact, which is being reflected, in the number of publications in high impact factor journals from the country (Fig. 1: histogram). Nanoscience and nanotechnology has been in the forefront of research in India due to the initiatives of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India (especially the NanoMission Council of the DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of electronics and information Technology(DeiTy) and Defence Research and Development organization (DRDO) and several other institutions of the Govt. of India which have also played a major role in encouraging research in nanoscience and nanotechnology. In this direction, several centres of nanoscience and technology have been started in the institutes of technology (IIT’s) and Central Universities and national laboratories. Recently, a new institute “Institute of Nanoscience and Technology” supported by DST has started functioning at Mohali, Punjab. Many of the earlier contributions from India were focussed on synthesis and properties of nanomaterials. In the last few years, the emphasis has shifted to deliver processes/devices in the area of sensors, nanomedicine, environmental and energy – based applications. There has been enormous progress in the field of photocatalysis and electrocatalysis, photovoltaics, nanophotonics, drug delivery, sensors and water purification. (Fig. 2: pie chart). The future is to design nanoscience based solutions for problems specific to India. It is hoped to couple available resources, especially skilled manpower with nanoscience and nanotechnology to apply to challenges being faced by India. One such example would be in the area of medical diagnostics which requires human intervention (skilled) and nanotechnology (imaging or drug delivery). In this article, we have highlighted the major contributions by scientists working in India towards the progress in nanoscience in the recent past (2012–2013). In addition, some high quality work in engineering and technology of nanostructured materials have also been published which has not been covered here.