Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
With Inputs from Media Release

Mangaluru, Dec 19: Two budding scientists, students of Sharada Vidyaniketan Public School here, have been selected to represent India in the International Science Fair to be held in the United States of America.

Komal of class XI and Aditya Bhargav of class X, were awarded the gold medal in the national-level Science Fair conducted by The Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS) held in Ahmedabad, for their paper on inventing a machine using nano materials that can convert harmful gases in the environment (like carbon monoxide emitted from vehicles and sulfur dioxide emitted from factories) into harmless gases. The event was held from December 4 to 7.

Having bagged the gold medal at the national level, Komal and Aditya are now all set to represent the country in the USA.

In Ahmedabad, the duo presented their project under 'Engineering: Materials and Bioengineering about Smart Nanodevices - Future for clean air and green world'. They were mentored by Ganesh Shastri, faculty of biology at Sharada Vidyaniketan. They were also guided in their experiments by inorganic and physics chemistry and nano sciences and engineering departments of IISC, Bengaluru.

After days of experiments, even during vacations, with different nano materials like zinc oxide, nitrogen dopped titanium dioxide, manganese oxide, manganese ferrite and cerium oxide in the labs of IISC, Bengaluru, Komal and Aditya succeeded in developing a sensor made out of nano materials which can sense poisonous gases like carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. In fact, they are the first ones to use manganese ferrite and cerium oxide to detect poisonous gases.

Addressing a press meet, Komal and Aditya explained the advantages of their invention. Their technology can replace the huge filters presently being used by the pollution control board, which take 2 to 3 days to detect minute quantities of harmful gases, whereas their nano material technology can do the same job in just 20 seconds.

They said that while other nano materials currently in the market sense poisonous gases only at 400 degree Celsius, their sensor can detect even minute quantities of these gases at room temperature of 25 degree Celsius.

Komal and Aditya plan to integrate their invention in mobile phones and gas alarms too, so that instant data is obtained and one can leave the place if any poisonous gas is detected. They feel that if their invention comes into the market, it would save millions of lives.