The Hindu : Indian scientist nominated for Chemistry Nobel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 05, 2003

National

National

Indian scientist nominated for Chemistry Nobel

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI July 4. An Indian scientist, Mrinal Thakur has been nominated for the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of non-conjugated conductive polymers, that is power conducting natural rubber and the fundamental basis of conductive polymers.

Two Americans — Alan Heeger and Alan MacDiarmid — and a Japanese, Hideki Shirakawa, won the Chemistry Nobel in 2000 for their discovery that plastics or polymers, known to be good insulators of electric wires, could even conduct electricity under certain conditions. But they thought only `conjugated' polymers could be conductive.

Prof. Thakur, who works in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering of Auburn University in the United States, has established that even non-conjugated polymers can conduct electricity.

The University has nominated Prof. Thakur for the Nobel Prize.

He has established the general principle of conductive polymers covering non-conjugated and fully conjugated polymers. His non-conjugated conductive polymers have specific attributes such as flexibility and low cost and are superior to conjugated polymers.

One of them was natural rubber or polyisoprene, Prof. Thakur now on a visit here, told The Hindu. He said it had a wide range of applications. Components made from these polymers could be used in sensors, light emitters and diodes. The polymers could also be used for giving electrical coating to components.

This is the third consecutive year Auburn University has nominated Prof. Thakur. The first time was in 2001, after Prof. Heeger and two others shared the prize of 9 million Swedish Kroner.

Prof. Thakur fears his work did not get recognised because it proves the conclusion of the Nobel laureates about the non-conjugated polymers incorrect and therefore, want to exclude non-conjugated polymers from consideration.

While nominating Prof. Thakur for the Nobel, David Dyer who heads the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Auburn University, said that the Nobel Committee should use discretion when using the opinions of Professors Heeger, MacDiarmid and Shirakawa "since they may have difficulty in providing objective views on this matter".

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National