Biography:

Prof. C.N.R. Rao (born on 30 June 1934, Bangalore, India) is the National Research Professor as well as Honorary President and Linus Pauling Research Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Indian Institute of Science. His main research interests are in solid state and materials chemistry. He is an author of over 1400 research papers and 41 books. He received the M.Sc. from Banaras, Ph.D. from Purdue, D.Sc. from Mysore universities and has received honoris causa doctorate degrees from 41 universities including Purdue, Bordeaux, Banaras, Delhi, Mysore, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, Notre Dame, Novosibirsk, Oxford, Stellenbosch, Uppsala, Wales, Wroclaw, Caen, Khartoum, Calcutta, Sri Venkateswara University and Desikottama from Visva-Bharati.

Prof. Rao is a Fellow of the Royal Society, London, Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A., Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, French Academy of Sciences, Japan Academy as well as the Polish, Czechoslovakian, Serbian, Slovenian, Brazil, Spanish, Korean and African Academies and the American Philosophical Society. He is a Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Foreign Member of Academia Europaea and Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is on the editorial boards of 20 leading professional journals.

Among the various medals, honours and awards received by him, mention must be made of the Marlow Medal of the Faraday Society (1967), Bhatnagar Prize (1968), Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship (1973), Padma Shri (1974), Centennial Foreign Fellowship of the American Chemical Society (1976), Royal Society of Chemistry (London) Medal (1981), Padma Vibhushan (1985), Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London (1989), Hevrovsky Gold Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy (1989), Blackett Lectureship of the Royal Society (1991), Einstein Gold Medal of UNESCO (1996), Linnett Professorship of the University of Cambridge (1998), Centenary Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London (2000), the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society, London, for original discovery in physical sciences (2000), Karnataka Ratna (2001) by the Karnataka Government, the Order of Scientific Merit (Grand-Cross) from the President of Brazil (2002), Gauss Professorship of Germany (2003) and the Somiya Award of the International Union of Materials Research (2004). He is the first recipient of the India Science Award by the Government of India (2005) and received the Dan David Prize for science in the future dimension for his research in Materials Science. He was named as Chemical Pioneer by the American Institute of Chemists (2005), "Chevalier de la Lgion dHonneur" by the President of the French Republic (2005) and received the Honorary Fellowship of the Institute of Physics, London (2006) and Honorary Fellowship of St. Catherines College, Oxford (2006).

Prof. Rao is Chairman, Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, past President of The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), Member of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and Chairman, Indo-Japan Science Council. He is Founder-President of both the Chemical Research Society of India and of the Materials Research Society of India. Prof. Rao was President of the Indian National Science Academy (1985-86), the Indian Academy of Sciences (1989-91), the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (1985-97), the Indian Science Congress Association (1987-88), and Chairman, Advisory Board of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India). He was the Director of the Indian Institute of Science (1984-94), Chairman of the Science Advisory Council to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (1985-89) and Chairman, Scientific Advisory Committee to the Union Cabinet (1997-98) and Albert Einstein Research Professor (1995-99).

Abstract:

1) New Chemistry with Nanomaterials:

Nanocrystals, nanowires, nanotubes and nanofilms are some of the important classes of nanomaterials. Chemistry has played a major role in the synthesis and modification of these nanomaterials. In particular, the synthesis of a large variety of nanocrystals and nanowires would have been impossible without using chemical techniques such as solvothermal synthesis. After a brief survey of some of the important chemical strategies employed for the synthesis, solubulization, functionalization and assembly of nanostructures, a few of the new and novel chemical approaches employed by us in the last few months will be presented. These will include the use of fluorous chemistry wherein nanocrystals, carbon nanotubes and other nanostructures are extracted or solubulized in the most nonpolar medium possible, and the use of click reaction for assembling nanostructures. The use of Lewis-Lewis base interaction is another useful method for functionalizing and solubulizing inorganic nanomaterials. Other strategies are the use of ionic liquids and certain novel ways of using template reactions.

2) Formation of Nanocrystalline Ultrathin Films of Materials Liquid-Liquid Interface:

The air-water interface is generally employed to prepare particle assemblies and films of metals and semiconductors. On the other hand, the interface between water and an organic liquid has not been investigated adequately for use in preparing nanocrystals and thin films of materials. The liquid-liquid interface provides an excellent medium for preparing ultrathin nanocrystalline films of metals, metal chalcogenides and oxides. The method involves the reaction at the interface between a metal-organic compound in the organic layer and an appropriate reagent for reduction, sulfidation, selenidation etc. in the aqueous layer. Some of the two-dimensional nanomaterials obtained are of Au, Ag, Pd, Au-Ag alloys, CuS, ZnS, PbS, CuSe, CdSe, CuO, and Cu(OH)2 formed at the liquid-liquid interface. Interestingly, many of the films are single crystalline. The results demonstrate the versatility and potential of the liquid-liquid interface for preparing nanomaterials and ultrathin films and encourage further research in this area. Results of studies on the effect of thiols on the structure and the surface plasmon band of metal films as well as of the mechanical properties of nanofilms will be presented.