Sid Das introduced new concepts for designing and synthesizing materials: materials that can keep highly reactive systems stable at high density and in pre-planned organization.
Why do we care?
Mankind seeks to convert one form of energy to another. Tool: a material.
OR, convert a material to another new one. Tool: customized/controlled energy source (well, controlled using a material!)
Byproducts: new comforts in our life.
We started with rubbing two pieces of woods and start a fire, a conversion of mechanical energy to heat and light energy. Material: dry wood. Byproduct: warmth, night vision, safety.
We used the fire to learn cooking, a conversion of a hard to digest material to easily digestible material. Energy source: heat from the fire we made. Byproduct: high nourishment from limited food, and, over time, good food!
Fast forward to 21st century. Everything we do, in every single second, involves a human-controlled chemical or energy conversion, often both.
Now, in this century we face a new kind of question: How to sustain this pursuit of mankind? While sustaining the Nature, sustaining our beloved Earth too.
We need good chemistry, good materials. Materials that can act very, very fast to help with fast conversions; i.e. hyper-reactive, hyper-sensitive. Also, materials that can do the process again, and again, and again; i.e. very stable.
The scale of this challenge is way more massive than any chemistry/materials endeavor that we, the human race, have ever undertaken.
And high endurance of our materials (or the absence of it) is a deal breaker. It is the central challenge to us, to the technologies of 21st century (battery, solar cell, sensor....).
Unfortunately, we did not learn how to make things fast and endurant, i.e. both reactive and stable!
Sid takes on this central challenge.
Why do we care?
Mankind seeks to convert one form of energy to another. Tool: a material.
OR, convert a material to another new one. Tool: customized/controlled energy source (well, controlled using a material!)
Byproducts: new comforts in our life.
We started with rubbing two pieces of woods and start a fire, a conversion of mechanical energy to heat and light energy. Material: dry wood. Byproduct: warmth, night vision, safety.
We used the fire to learn cooking, a conversion of a hard to digest material to easily digestible material. Energy source: heat from the fire we made. Byproduct: high nourishment from limited food, and, over time, good food!
Fast forward to 21st century. Everything we do, in every single second, involves a human-controlled chemical or energy conversion, often both.
Now, in this century we face a new kind of question: How to sustain this pursuit of mankind? While sustaining the Nature, sustaining our beloved Earth too.
We need good chemistry, good materials. Materials that can act very, very fast to help with fast conversions; i.e. hyper-reactive, hyper-sensitive. Also, materials that can do the process again, and again, and again; i.e. very stable.
The scale of this challenge is way more massive than any chemistry/materials endeavor that we, the human race, have ever undertaken.
And high endurance of our materials (or the absence of it) is a deal breaker. It is the central challenge to us, to the technologies of 21st century (battery, solar cell, sensor....).
Unfortunately, we did not learn how to make things fast and endurant, i.e. both reactive and stable!
Sid takes on this central challenge.