It is rightly said that excellence in obscurity is better than mediocrity in spotlight. Dr Hemanta Kumar Raut is such a scientist and technocrat, who has been a pioneer in many path-breaking researches in the sphere of multidisciplinary research on bio-inspired materials for application in currency anti-counterfeiting, biomedical, robotic and renewable energy application.
He has developed butterfly wing-inspired colour-producing materials and has designed and manufactured re-attachable adhesive films based on the footpads of lizard and demonstrated application in wall climbing robots.
His wall-climbing robots may be of immense use to locate and rescue people in natural disaster management during earthquakes and cyclones. His research rests on bio-inspired materials, the lack of which have made us witness the form of pandemics whose roots possibly lay in our extreme interference with the environment causing unusual genetic crossovers.
An inventive genius like this budding scientist may someday bring laurels for his countrymen through his findings on biocompatibility showing potential for biomedical implants. He is currently a research fellow at the Singapore University of Technology and Design.
In fact, he takes immense interest in advanced teaching and pedagogy and has received the Kaufman Teaching Certificate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Materials Science and Engineering, USA. Raut has received his PhD from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore.
He was a topper during his undergraduate study in Mechanical Engineering at the College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar. An admirer of Dr Meghanad Saha, CV Raman, he believes that anything foreign is not always superior to everything Indian. In an interview to The Pioneer, Dr Raut spokes to Sugyan Choudhury through a telephonic conversation from Singapore.
Could you please tell us about your research?
I work on bio-inspired materials. The idea of bio-inspiration is several centuries-old. The eminent polymath Leonardo da Vinci’s early designs of airplane were inspired from birds. In fact, the famous Eiffel Tower was designed based on the shape of human thighbone. My research lies in this very field, but I take inspiration from smaller structures in nature, structures which are thousand times smaller than human hair, which are the origin of whole new properties. They make lizards climb walls; they help insects see clearly at night; they even make viruses, coronavirus for example, attach to the walls of the nasal track. So, by synthetically making such structures, we can not only engineer new properties in materials but also come up with ways to counter them in some cases. My research focuses exactly on that. I develop materials based on bio-inspiration that can show whole new properties or improve the existing ones. Developing such materials require expertise in multiple disciplines. This is the exciting multidisciplinary research I do.
Could you please dwell on your recent field of research?
It is about the creation of an ecofriendly material that matches the exceptional mechanical strength of bones. The specific strength of bone is comparable to that of steel. It also does not fracture easily, usually lasts a lifetime. However, in case of severe fracture or bone-related disease, implants become necessary.
Current metal-based implants indeed restore bone function; but in some cases, immoderately stiffmetals can cause tissue wear and infection. Metals are also energy-intensive to process and recycle. So, I was driven to create a material that can be made using seafood waste, processed by an eco-friendly in expensive way and yet show strength comparable to that of bone.
I took inspiration from my childhood days collecting cockle shells along the Puri seashore. These shells, as you might know, are extremely stiff. Surprisingly, they are composed of the very constituent a piece of chalk is made of -- calcium carbonate! I found out that the origin of the unusual stiffness of cockle shell lies in its internal construction.
It has very thin calcium carbonate tablets arranged like bricks in cement wall. Scientists had seen this design and replicated it too, but I tried to replicate the zigzag way they are arranged, which was a longstanding challenge.
Intense effort to replicate this design during my independent research fellowship at MIT culminated in publication in the journal ACS Nano, where we reported a composite that showed mechanical property comparable to that of bone.
The composite incorporated a material that can be extracted from shrimp and other seafood waste. In fact, the composite nearly doubled the strength of the shrimp extract too, making it a strong, green and easily recyclable alternative to high strength composites used in various industrial and household applications.
How does your research benefit society?
Most of my recent research, including the one I discussed now, centres around the use of renewable constituents, mainly natural extracts like seafood waste, silk, etc. I also develop manufacturing approaches that transform these constituents into new materials in an inexpensive, carbon-neutral way.
Overall, the bio-inspired materials that I develop exhibit properties comparable to or better than those of traditional material at reduced expense and resource utilisation. Such materials align with our urgent goal to maximise the use of renewable materials and minimise emission and establish a circular economy. In a way, we are witnessing the lack of it in the form of pandemics whose roots possibly lay in our extreme interference with the environment causing unusual genetic crossovers.
Importantly, some of these natural extracts that I work on, such as silk, are also of urgent application in vaccine transport with reduced in-transit refrigeration. I plan to expand my research on such materials soon.
When did you begin your research?
Since my PhD at National University of Singapore, I have focused on studying the applications of bio-inspired materials in various areas. For example, a new type of textured glass that I developed was applied to solar modules to reduce optical losses and increase their efficiency.
We also pursued applications of an adhesive film that I had developed in robots to make them climb walls. The film has structures inspired from those on the feet of lizard and can make robots climb. Such capability in robots is very important to make them reach inaccessible locations to locate people trapped in earthquake debris.
A similar material that I had developed previously is also useful in solving the water scarcity issue that we face in India. The material can make fog condense faster. It is like dew forming on our rooftiles in early morning, just that the rate of water collection by this material is five-time faster. Imagine placing these materials as rooftiles of houses in desert where water scarcity is intense.
Why can’t you utilise your research in your own country?
Although I am internationally recognised in the field of my research, I first belong to mother India. I want to dedicate my research in the task of nation-building or in serving Utkal Janani in the sphere of science and technology if such an occasion arrives.
But then, who can penetrate the babudom in our country to find a berth conducive to higher research, which is my cup of tea?
