My decision to choose chemical engineering was not an impetuous one; rather it was developed over a time. Sometime in the middle of the year of 2004, we had to submit a science project in our school. I wanted to make something special, and during that time, I watched the movie "Around the World in 80 days ". There was one scene in the movie where the British inventor illuminates the room by just the clap of his hand. I decided to take that as my school project. Working with various resistors and transistors was getting me excited about this wonderful phenomenon called electricity. Just about that time, my father was constructing a system where grey water could be reused in our home. I started reading about the details in the internet and learnt about diffusion. Initially I wasn't sure which one I should choose because I was interested in both, but working with electricity and working in diffusion related areas appeared to be very different. Then I came across an article in our local paper about the "Universal Engineers" describing different roles played by a chemical engineer. That helped me decide to take up the role of a chemical engineer.
To pursue my dream career, I chose Chemical Engineering in Sri Venkateswara College Of Engineering, India. It has a very good program, excellent lab facilities and most important of all, dedicated teachers who molded me into what I am right now. During my sophomore year, I took the basic science courses, which made me feel that there is a huge gap between the formulation of laws and in applying them. I .Trying to bridge the gap in my own way, I had to conduct fundamental experiments. I learnt that Prof. Ramanathan in the Dept. Chem. Engg., Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) Madras is conducting research in the area of electrochemistry . I contacted him so that I can do a project in his lab. I started working on experimental investigation of anodic dissolution of nickel in nitric acid by using Impedance Spectroscopy. Since electrochemistry was not a major part of my curriculum, I learnt the basics by self-reading. I learnt the operation of different instruments (PARSTAT 2263 and CH instruments 604C). We had problem in getting repeatable data. I traced the problem to oxidation of Ni in air and passivation of Ni in the solution. By minimizing these issues and by avoiding operating in the passivating region, we were able to acquire repeatable data. Although the results were not published, I learnt how to conduct experimental research: testing for repeatability, debugging a system. It was very different from our usual undergraduate lab, where most things work at the first attempt. This was my first stint at conducting research.
Along with experimental work, I also conducted simulation to analyze the nonlinear effects on electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) of reacting systems. We simulated the effect of applying a sinusoidal potential and showed that the average surface coverage of intermediate species in a reaction drifts when a perturbation is applied. Thus acquiring data in the initial period of application of sine wave leads to incorrect impedance values and we have illustrated a procedure for measuring the values correctly. The results are published in Electrochimica Acta ("An analysis of drifts and nonlinearities in electrochemical impedance spectra " , Niket Kaisare, Vimala Ramani, Karthik Pushpavanam, S. Ramanathan, Electrochim. Acta, 56 (2011) 7467-7475). In the subsequent work, we investigated the effects of change in electrode area (either due to inhibitors adsorbing on the electrode or due to dissolution and associated increase in roughness). The paper entitled "Numerical Simulations of Nonlinear Electrochemical Impedance Spectra of Unstable Systems" was selected for the 220th Electrochemical Society Conference in Boston (Oct 2011) but unfortunately I was unable to present the paper due to financial constraints. We are studying the combined effect of diffusion and reaction on the EIS and focusing our efforts on understanding the effect of large amplitude sine waves under diffusion limited conditions. We are hoping to complete the studies in the next few months and along with the results of area change effects, we are hoping to submit these results to a journal.
I also wanted to get the experience of working in different areas of chemical engineering and secured internship under the guidance of Prof. Ashutosh Sharma in IIT Kanpur. I was part of the J.C Bose Fellowship program. I worked on a project to develop a new material for desalination for Thermex, India. I started by trying a composite aerogel comprising of Resorcinol - Formaldehyde/silica composite. The aerogels had a very high surface area but were physically weak and further processing would be required to make it strong and inevitably reducing the surface area. The process was time consuming and also not economical. I decided to try an alternate, i.e. xerogels, which had relatively low surface area but better rigidity. A composite of the same material was prepared. I had to optimize the evaporation rates to prevent fracture and buckling of the xerogel. Silica in the composite was etched and the surface area was further increased by means of thermal and chemical activation. While I was working more or less independently in the experimental part in IIT-Madras, in IIT-Kanpur, I worked in a group and found that it was very exciting. Late night discussions in the lab with the group members working in different fields made me open to vast number of fields that a chemical engineer can affect.
During our final year I was required to submit my B.Tech project/ thesis. Prof. Basavaraj of IIT-Madras has offered me a project on the influence of Soret effect on the interface (of what and what). For this study, I am designing a cell with proper materials and will choose the fluids. I am also going to simulate the effect in COMSOL and what I have learnt in the courses such as transport phenomenon and mass transfer is coming in handy.
To pursue my dream career, I chose Chemical Engineering in Sri Venkateswara College Of Engineering, India. It has a very good program, excellent lab facilities and most important of all, dedicated teachers who molded me into what I am right now. During my sophomore year, I took the basic science courses, which made me feel that there is a huge gap between the formulation of laws and in applying them. I .Trying to bridge the gap in my own way, I had to conduct fundamental experiments. I learnt that Prof. Ramanathan in the Dept. Chem. Engg., Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) Madras is conducting research in the area of electrochemistry . I contacted him so that I can do a project in his lab. I started working on experimental investigation of anodic dissolution of nickel in nitric acid by using Impedance Spectroscopy. Since electrochemistry was not a major part of my curriculum, I learnt the basics by self-reading. I learnt the operation of different instruments (PARSTAT 2263 and CH instruments 604C). We had problem in getting repeatable data. I traced the problem to oxidation of Ni in air and passivation of Ni in the solution. By minimizing these issues and by avoiding operating in the passivating region, we were able to acquire repeatable data. Although the results were not published, I learnt how to conduct experimental research: testing for repeatability, debugging a system. It was very different from our usual undergraduate lab, where most things work at the first attempt. This was my first stint at conducting research.
Along with experimental work, I also conducted simulation to analyze the nonlinear effects on electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) of reacting systems. We simulated the effect of applying a sinusoidal potential and showed that the average surface coverage of intermediate species in a reaction drifts when a perturbation is applied. Thus acquiring data in the initial period of application of sine wave leads to incorrect impedance values and we have illustrated a procedure for measuring the values correctly. The results are published in Electrochimica Acta ("An analysis of drifts and nonlinearities in electrochemical impedance spectra " , Niket Kaisare, Vimala Ramani, Karthik Pushpavanam, S. Ramanathan, Electrochim. Acta, 56 (2011) 7467-7475). In the subsequent work, we investigated the effects of change in electrode area (either due to inhibitors adsorbing on the electrode or due to dissolution and associated increase in roughness). The paper entitled "Numerical Simulations of Nonlinear Electrochemical Impedance Spectra of Unstable Systems" was selected for the 220th Electrochemical Society Conference in Boston (Oct 2011) but unfortunately I was unable to present the paper due to financial constraints. We are studying the combined effect of diffusion and reaction on the EIS and focusing our efforts on understanding the effect of large amplitude sine waves under diffusion limited conditions. We are hoping to complete the studies in the next few months and along with the results of area change effects, we are hoping to submit these results to a journal.
I also wanted to get the experience of working in different areas of chemical engineering and secured internship under the guidance of Prof. Ashutosh Sharma in IIT Kanpur. I was part of the J.C Bose Fellowship program. I worked on a project to develop a new material for desalination for Thermex, India. I started by trying a composite aerogel comprising of Resorcinol - Formaldehyde/silica composite. The aerogels had a very high surface area but were physically weak and further processing would be required to make it strong and inevitably reducing the surface area. The process was time consuming and also not economical. I decided to try an alternate, i.e. xerogels, which had relatively low surface area but better rigidity. A composite of the same material was prepared. I had to optimize the evaporation rates to prevent fracture and buckling of the xerogel. Silica in the composite was etched and the surface area was further increased by means of thermal and chemical activation. While I was working more or less independently in the experimental part in IIT-Madras, in IIT-Kanpur, I worked in a group and found that it was very exciting. Late night discussions in the lab with the group members working in different fields made me open to vast number of fields that a chemical engineer can affect.
During our final year I was required to submit my B.Tech project/ thesis. Prof. Basavaraj of IIT-Madras has offered me a project on the influence of Soret effect on the interface (of what and what). For this study, I am designing a cell with proper materials and will choose the fluids. I am also going to simulate the effect in COMSOL and what I have learnt in the courses such as transport phenomenon and mass transfer is coming in handy.
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