Kanpur lab develops new carbon products

The Kanpur-based defence laboratory Defense Materials and Stores Research & Development Establishment (DMSRDE) has achieved a breakthrough in research on carbonaceous absorbents.

The absorbents are used in devices for protection against nuclear, biological and chemical contaminants.

The laboratory has developed a series of protective devices including NBC suits, which are going to be produced by ordnance factories.

According to GB Mathur, DMSRDE director, 17,000 such suits have already been manufactured and its better version Mark III is undergoing field test by the Army.

Only after the successful field tests, production of Mark III suits would begin, he added.

The laboratory has developed activated carbon spheres with high surface area and excellent mechanical strength. The technology for production of this had been transferred to industry along with technology for making NBC suits, Mathur said.

The US Army during its Iraq operations also wanted NBC suits because their own suits were not suited for the tropical climate.

Mathur said Malaysia was keen to buy these NBC suits and their exports would start soon.

VS Tripathi, in charge of the carbon research, said another scientific revolution was expected in the development of carbon nano-materials such as fullerene, nano-tubes and nano-wires.

In the area of fullerene preparation, purification and derivatisation research is being carried out all over the world.

Preparation of single walled and multi-walled carbon nano-tubes, carbon nano-wires and carbon helices for application in electronics and nano-composites is emerging as an area of current interest.

A gap, he said, existed between the achievement and the aim. For instance, India exports graphite electrodes of 40,000 tonnes per annum, but the two major raw materials are being imported.

Pitch, which is one of them, is found in ample measure in the country, but it has not been developed.

Mathur said, "All our products undergo rigorous testing by the Army, but the same strict yardstick is not applied to foreign product, which is accepted as it is."

The foreign products were suited to their environment and not to tropical climate, therefore all products in all countries had their own specific time to develop.

"It is a continuous process which results in better technological product and no country can achieve it in one single stroke", he said.

"Also, nobody will give products of hi tech and transfer of technology is passe. Therefore the country has only one option and that is to develop its product and technology, " he added.