Wednesday Colloquia

Climate Change on Earth, Magnesium Civilization on Mars and Nanotechnology

by Prof. Vivek Polshettiwar (TIFR Mumbai)

Wednesday, February 17, 2021 from to (Asia/Kolkata)
at Online through ZOOM Webinar ( Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/97963259354?pwd=ZFZsa2xqWGJSZW5pUjZPNkNqeGlEZz09 )
Meeting ID: 979 6325 9354 Pass code: 04072020
Description
“Life -the most complex form of matter in the universe – is on course for its inevitable extinction, unless we humans, the chosen ones, can agree to live within the limits of nature’s rules”. Disproportionate use (or misuse) of natural resources, including fossil fuels, created an extreme imbalance on planet earth and the first priority of all of us to take on this challenge. 

Running your car for a lifetime by just filling CO2 only once could be possible if we can capture and convert CO2 to methane. In this colloquium, I will discuss some of our work in the Field of Catalysis & Nanotechnology, such as DFNS [1], Black Gold [2], Defective Nanosilica [3] and Solid Acids [4] to combat climate change. 

However, if we fail to protect planet earth from climate change, then humanity will be saved if Elon Musk’s plan of colonization of Mars succeeds. I will present our recent (unpublished) results on the concept of “Magnesium Civilization on Mars”. 


References:

1. Maity, Polshettiwar et al. Nature Protocol, 2019, 14,2177.
2. Dhiman, Polshettiwar et al. Chemical Science 2019, 10, 6694.
3. Mishra, Polshettiwar et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A 2020, 117, 6383.        
4. Maity, Polshettiwar et al. Nature Comm. 2020, 11, 3828.