I am very passionate about sports since my school days!! I have excelled in various sports events including Basketball (kerala state level), handball (southzone cbse) and athletics (revenue district level). Right now, I am pursuing a PhD from IIT Madras under the Manufacturing Engineering Section of Mechanical Engineering Department. I work on developing new techniques for production of graphene for my PhD research and also for an industrial project. My love for academics, sports and good food has helped me adapt to the environments of different educational institutions
My family has always supported and encouraged me to be passionate about my research and academics. My mother Fathima Nishad (D/o Late Azeez Sait & Late Zaibunisa Bai) is a homemaker and my father Nishad Sait (S/O Mariyam Bai & Late Ebrahim Sait) is a Trade Instructor at TKMCE, Kollam. I have an older brother – Anees Sait, who works as a Senior Analyst at Allianz located in Trivandrum Techno Park and a younger sister – Zulekha Nishad, who is currently pursuing Masters of Arts in English Literature at Amrita Viswa Vidyapedam. My wife, Bushnin Waseem Patel (D/O Habeeba and Waseem Patel) works as an Educational Research Data Analyst at IIT Madras under the Dean of Academic Research and also is a Scientific Writer and Editor too.
Learned from the media that your research is related with producing graphene platelets from Graphite, to a layman, how you explain what is the importance of this research?
As you know, the pencils we use contains lead. The lead is made of graphite and graphene is a basic constituent of graphite. Graphene is a newly discovered material which is made up of carbon (also called allotrope of carbon) arranged in a single atom thick two dimensional sheet. In spite of its density being extremely lower than any steel, graphene is about 100 times stronger than the strongest steel available. Graphene conducts heat and electricity very efficiently. Many scientists around the world have explored the applicability of graphene to build new electronic devices, conducting polymers, better lubricants and so on. Lab-scale fabrication and manufacturing of graphene can be done in smaller amounts but producing larger amounts for industrial use has not been easy. We wanted to address this research problem. Our research has been studying various unconventional mechanical ways to make this material, particularly in large amounts. Graphite acts as a good lubricant because of the way the graphene sheets can easily slide past each other. We have used this very lubricating action and applied it in the machining process, to separate the graphene sheets and help them stay suspended in a solution. Our way of making graphene generates many small graphene particles which can be separated out and used for various purposes.
How do you think your research will help the humans and the environment?
Graphene is one of the strongest and thinnest materials known to man and is also biocompatible. So it can be used for various applications including biomedical, water and air purification, energy storage etc. It conducts electricity thirteen times better than copper. Graphene can also form an excellent barrier layer and has an extremely high surface area. This makes graphene a very promising material to be used in batteries and supercapacitors. Graphene also has a lot of other promising applications such as in the production of anti-corrosion coatings and paints, efficient and precise sensors, faster and efficient electronics, flexible displays, efficient solar panels, faster DNA sequencing, drug delivery, and many more. My research is entirely focused on producing good quality defect free graphene that can be used for its various applications.
What got you interested in this field?
Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov of the University of Manchester discovered and isolated a single atomic layer of carbon i.e. Graphene for the first time and they received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. Graphene is a very recent material known as the “Wonder Material” and its wide applicability intrigued me. I was very much interested in understanding the best method for producing large scale good quality graphene.
Do you remember any exciting incidents during research?
The appreciation received for the work I presented during conferences at Taiwan and USA has inspired me to stay on path and continue with my research. As a part of my Student Exchange Program I performed various experiments in Japan. The work culture and research labs were really amazing. Everyone there is extremely work-oriented and very organized. During my initial days I thought I would not be able to adapt to this highly organized and systematic environment. These days were the most exciting ones as the lab coordinators who taught me to operate the machines communicated in Japanese with very few English words. My struggle to understand kept me on my toes. As day went by, I quickly adapted to the work culture and this experience had been extremely exciting.
The challenges you and your team faced during this research.
Particles present in my sample were really small in size, about 1/ 10000th time thinner than a strand of hair. For the purpose of characterization and identifying material quality, its thickness and lateral measurements, many sophisticated machines are required to be used. Students belonging to Physics, Chemistry and Chemical engineering backgrounds usually deal with these equipment. My major challenge was accessing these facilities and being able to use them on my own. This challenge pushed me to get myself trained in using machines like Scanning Electron Microscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy, UV-Spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, XRD and so on.
What you want to say to our youngsters who are interested in the scientific studies?
Studies in science and engineering or rather pursuing one’s passion is very worthwhile. I urge all the youngsters of our community to pursue their dreams and follow their passion. One should always try to enroll into the best universities and institutions of your area of choice. Many of us are ignorant or unaware of the pool of opportunities that India has to offer in various streams of education. I suggest the youngsters to find out and approach established universities (preferably central universities in India) and institutes to collect information regarding their joining and scholarship programs. I also take this opportunity to highlight the fact that education in India or abroad in your desired subject area is not always expensive and unaffordable. There are many scholarships and facilities which are available to undergraduate, post graduate and continuing education candidates. For example scholarships such as DAAD, Full Bright, MEXT, INSPIRE, Commom Wealth and many others offer great scholarships and provide you with a platform to establish your dreams with your talent and persistence. I believe learning is a continuous process and does not always require one to attend college on a full time basis. There are various online, distance and correspondence programs and courses which anyone regardless of age, gender or status can pursue and continue their education. I would request elders of our community to support and encourage everyone and anyone who wants to learn. We should equally encourage and inspire both girls and boys , men and women to learn and fulfill their career path.
Thank you Wazeem Nishad for the time you spent with us. Really it will help and inspire many.
