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Dr S.R.Rajagopalan
Dr. S.R.Rajagopalan is a Materials Scientist with specialisation in Electrochemistry.
Biography : Born on 30th December 1931 to Sri Rama Iyengar and Smt MohanaValli, he had his early education in Madurai and obtained his BSc degree in chemistry in 1952 from American College, Madurai which was then in Madras University. In 1953 he joined Central Electrochemical Research Institute,Karaikudi where he contributed to various aspects of surface coatings and in the study of their physicochemical properties.
There he studied the question of the origin of the optical properties of Black Nickel coatings and several un answered questions in literature on this topic. The color of Black Nickel as they explain is due to the decrease in reflectivity which arises due to decrease in effective electron density resulting from dispersion of metal in dielectric matrix. His findings were also published in an International Journal 1. Based on his contributions in this field, he was admitted for the Doctoral program at the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
He joined CSIR-NAL on invitation in November 1967 during the establishment of the Division of Material Science at what was then known as National Aeronautical laboratory. He made several notable contributions in almost all areas of electrochemistry such as Electroplating, corrosion, electrochemical instrumentation, surface modification, surface engineering and ultra trace analysis.
He retired as a Deputy Director from CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru in 1991 after a career spanning nearly 37 years.
Contributions to Technology innovation : He has developed some key Electroforming and Electrochemical maching technolgies for Industries. He played a significant role in the development of 10.4 m radio telescope machining and also in the front end of the receiver system3. One of the most important contributions is the fabrication of Radiative cooler for the Infrared sensor for use in INSAT series satellites for Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ).
His fundamental work on the methods of charging current compensation in various polarographic techniques extended the detection limits of analytes to previously unattainable levels 4. Based on this work, his group developed charging current compensated DC,AC and Pulse polarographs for the first time and they were commercialised and marketed by a private company.
Awards and Honors : He received Vasvik Award in 1986, for his contribution to the development of Electrochemical Machining technology. He was awarded the Materials Research Society of India (MRSI) medal in 1992. The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras has launched a Chair in his honor at the Department of chemistry 5. The Electrochemical Society of India, Bengaluru has also instituted the yearly Dr S.R.Rajagopalan Endowment lecture series in his honor.
References :
1. An explanation for the Black color of black Ni, S.R.Rajagopalan, K.S.Indira, K.S.G.Doss , J. Electroanal.chem Vol 10 (1965) 465 – 472.
2. Colors of thin Black Nickel deposits , S.R.Rajagopalan, Curr.Sci., Vol 41 ( 1972), 371-376
3. Metal Finishing challenges in the fabrication of Radio telescopes, Rajagopal I, Lakshminarayanan,V, Rajam K.S, Rajagopalan S.R Indian J.Tech 24(1986) 440
4. Instrumentation for Charging current compensation in dc polarography, A.Poojary and S.R.Rajagopalan , J.Electroanal.chem., Vol 62 (1975) , 51-58
5. https://joyofgiving.alumni.iitm.ac.in/endowments/institute-chair/prof-s-r-rajagopalan-institute-chair-in-chemistry-department