22 November,2011 09:27 AM IST | | Priyankka Deshpande
Experiments prove heating mix of metal salt, sulphur salt, hydrazine hydrate in water in oven produces nano material, which has anti-microbial properties
DID you know that even a small kitchen appliance like a microwave oven can produce nano particles, which in turn can help minimise the side effects of any drugs used in case of infection? The pathbreaking research was carried out by city-based Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET) in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology of the University of Pune.
Making waves: The C-MET team of scientists who conducted the
research on producing nano particles
The team of six scientists headed by Dr Dinesh Amalnerkar, executive director of C-MET, and Dr Vasudev Gade, director of board of college and university, has produced the nano material, for which the team has also received provisional patent on September 13.
The team will receive its final patent in another six months. This research was done with minimum expenditure. "We have been working on this project since last year for which we used a simple technique of mixing the components of metal salt and sulphur salt with hydrazine hydrate in water and then kept it in a microwave," said Nilam Qureshi, a team member."After heating it, the final product we received was nano particles which can then be used as anti-microbial product that has the capacity to kill bacteria without having side effects on the body. It can also minimise the spread of chemicals integrated in a specific drug to other parts of the body, except the affected part for which the drug has been taken."
The research was carried out in a lab of C-MET. The team also had to face many obstacles during the project. "When we started this project, we found out that the nano particles we produced were few in amount which would not be effective on the colonies of bacteria (large growth of bacteria)," said Manish Shinde, another team member. "Nano particles can directly act on virus bacteria. The team's next efforts will be focussed on how to use these nano particles in medicines."u00a0
