Innovation of Low-Cost Graphene and Amaranthus Superparamagnetic Materials - Theivasanthi

Rajapalayam, India, September 27, 2014 --(PR.com)-- Ms. T. Theivasanthi, a woman researcher of India has innovated superparamagnetic materials from graphene and a plant Amaranthus dubius. She has already made superparamagnetic materials from some mixed plants materials of Acalypha indica, Cynodon dactylon, Terminalia chebula, Eugenia jambolina and Cassia auriculata named as Santhi Particles. Apart from the above plants, she has innovated superparamagnetic materials from the plants of Cocos nucifera and Curcuma longa. They have been named as Santhi Particles-1 and Santhi Particles-2 respectively. Now, Santhi Particles-3 has been identified from Amaranthus dubius.

It is essential to mention here that room temperature superparamagnetic behaviour has been observed in all the above materials. VSM analysis of the nanomaterials samples have been done at SAIF, IIT Madras (India). The preliminary research result / figure confirm their superparamagnetic behavior. Further research on this issue is undergoing. Also, an attempt has been made to find magnetic behaviour of Butter beans (Phaseolus lunatus) and Jackfruit seed nanopowder (Artocarpus heterophyllus). Samples of both these materials have shown diamagnetic behaviour.

Graphene is an amazing, man-made, super strong, super light material and has better electron mobility / better electricity conductor than other metals. It conducts / accepts electrons and injects electrons into other materials. It is used as filler to boost mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of composite materials. It is also used in Supercapacitors / ultracapcitors or electrochemical double-layer capacitors which could store as much energy as an electrochemical battery and charge up in a matter of seconds.

A.dubius has highly nutritious grains and leaves which are utilized as food material. It contains large amounts of protein, essential amino acids, vitamins, dietary fiber and dietary minerals (iron, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, manganese, calcium, potassium and zinc).

The scientist Ms.Theivasanthi explains, graphene superparamagnetic material has been made from mechanical grinding of graphite which is the fastest and low-cost way to make large quantities of such material. She also states, superparamagnetism is the magnetic state of a material between highly ordered parallel spins (ferromagnetism) and randomly ordered spins (paramagnetism). It improves the accuracy of spintronic sensors because a small sensed field is sufficient to order the spins in a superparamagnetic material. Such improved and accurate sensors are useful in number of applications including biosensor.

Previous reports say that grapheme is biologically inert material. Hence, the superparamagnetic materials prepared from plants materials as well as graphene will be bio-compatible in nature and will be very useful in various fields, industrial applications, memory devices related to computer / electronics items and biomedical applications particularly in biology / biotechnology fields.

The researcher (presently, serving as a Senior Lecturer in Physics, PACR Polytechnic College, Rajapalayam, India, http://theivasanthi.weebly.com) who has discovered this breakthrough advancement explicates her aim i.e. dedicating / devoting her research works towards to achieve the higher level goal such as Nobel Prize and gear-up them to find unexpected innovative ideas & products from materials, accordingly. Hence, the whole society can attain benefits from her works. She also expects to do collaborative research works with interested collaborators / researchers.