Three IIT-ISM, Dhanbad’s students, have been conferred with Inder Mohan Thapar Foundation (IMTF) Award for their world-class research work.
Professor Aditya Kumar, Kalpita Nath and Poonam Chauhan of Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT-ISM bagged one time instituted IMTF Award for their research work on “Silver Nanoparticles based superhydrophobic anti-viral coating on cloth” for calendar year 2020. The award will be formally conferred to awardees during celebration of Foundation Day of Institute this year, informed ISM Media Cell officials. The award of rupees ‘one lakh’ will be distributed among Faculty Members (50 per cent which would be credited on PDF of faculty member); Research Scholar/students (50 per cent which would be equally divided among scholars/students in research group. The amount will be credited in contingent fund of the scholar/students), he said. A three-member team of ISM scientists headed by Aditya Kumar, professor of chemical engineering Kalpita Nath and Poonam Chauhan recently developed a wash-resistant antiviral and antibacterial coating of silver nanoparticles for textiles. This coating makes textile (cloth) super-hydrophobic and may also kill Novel Coronavirus when virus comes in contact. They have conducted successful research on efficacy of coating on E. coli (bacteria) and A. Niger (fungus). Though, tests on COVID-19 are yet to be conducted, said an official. "We have started study soon after WHO recommended use of triple-layered masks and PPE kits for COVID-19 prevention," said Aditya.