The Silicon Review ^Asia

A team of scientists,associated with Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR),have created a new method to produce hydrogels. The new development could be helpful to clean industrial waste from the water and could be used in many other works as well.

The scientists have used a method where tiny cubes of metal-organic compounds self-assembled to turn themselves into hydrogels with the help of molecular binders.The hydrogels created, as a result, depend on the size, geometry, and shape of the molecular binders.

The first hydrogel was created by using a cationic ammonia-based molecular binder. It looks like a nanotubular with a negative charge on its surface.

The hydrogels can be used to separate cationic species from their anionic counterparts from any material as it is used as a gel-chromatography separator.

Another hydrogel was created with the help of binder based on two things, i.e. tetraphenylmethane and an organic chromophore. It was very photo-responsive.

Moving ahead, the team created a compound based on two molecular binders, i.e. tri-component white light emitting hydrogel. It can find an application which could work as a white light-emitting substance.

The research teamincluded: Tapas Maji (leader of the team), Venkata M. Suresh, Papri Sutar, Arpan Hazra, and Kolleboyina Jayaramulu. The work has been showcasedin journal Nature Communication and the Science and Engineering Research Board partially funded the collective research work.