(7hy) Application of Ultrasound for Synthesis of Carbon Capture Microcapsules

Research Interests:

Colloids and Surface Science, Emulsions, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Micro-Fluidics, Soft Matter, Wetting, Food Science.

Teaching Interests:

Colloids and Surface Science, Numerical Methods, Heat Transfer, Transport Phenomena, Thermodynamics, Reaction Engineering

Successful Proposals:

Subsequent to my PhD research, I have always been trying to diversify my research by developing new ideas either in the same area or in an inter-disciplinary area.

1. US $90,000 During my Post-Doc work at Xerox, my research grant was ranked as the top grant in all of Xerox that year and was funded for 3 years for a total of $90,000 by Xerox Foundation (University Affairs Committee) that supports fundamental research at national and international universities. This grant supported a Masters student in the research group of Assoc/Prof Susan Daniel in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at Cornell University, Ithaca, USA.

2. AUS $10,000 At the University of Melbourne, I developed a new research project every year from 2014 to 2016 for ECR grant (Early Career Researcher) for funding from Melbourne Research Office on various fundamental aspects of forced contact line movement on soft surfaces. So far, I have received $10,000 from Faculty of Engineering through ECR Scheme.

Postdoctoral Research Experience and Projects:

1. Xerox Research Project: “Fundamental interactions of liquids with solids in the context of developing next generation inkjet and offset printing technologies” Under the supervision of Dr. Kock-Yee Law.

2. The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. Worked on measuring the interaction forces between colliding emulsion drops using atomic force microscope (AFM) to correlate it to the stability of emulsions in presence of mixed surfactant systems in relation to food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical emulsions. Developed emulsion formulations for Confectionery Industry Partner. Under the supervision of Prof. Raymond Dagastine and Prof. Muthupandian Ashokkumar.

3. The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. Project: “Probing microbial emulsions to break barriers to green oil production” Working to developing fundamental surface and interfacial chemistry needed to reduce cost of biodiesel production from Algae. Also working on using Ultrasound to improve extraction efficiency of lipids from Algae cells. Under the supervision of Prof. Muthupandian Ashokkumar and Dr. Greg Martin.

4. PhD Dissertation: “Motion of Liquid Drops on Surfaces Induced by Vibration: Role of Contact Angle Hysteresis“ Under supervision of Prof. Manoj K Chaudhury, Department of Chemical Engineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA. My PhD thesis was nominated for Stout Dissertation Award.

4. Master’s Thesis: “Momentum and heat transfer from an asymmetrically confined circular cylinder in a plane channel “ Under supervision of Prof. Nishith Verma and Prof. Raj K Chhabra, IIT Kanpur, India.

Research Experience: Throughout my research career, I extensively worked in the area of colloid and surface science. For my PhD thesis, I studied the effects of contact angle hysteresis on movement of liquid drops on a solid surface. As a post-doctoral research scientist at the Xerox Research Centre, I studied the fundamental interactions of complex liquids (colloidal suspensions) with solids in the context of inkjet and offset printing technologies For the last three years (2014 to 2017) at The University of Melbourne, I worked as post-doctoral researcher on the ARC funded ITRP (Industrial Transformation Research Project) Hub on Food Industry Transformation for ASEAN markets (http://foodvaluechain.unimelb.edu.au). I worked closely with Mondelez Inc (Cadbury) on developing new emulsion based confectionery products which are healthy and cheap to produce. In the ITRP project, I also measured the strength of flavor encapsulated microcapsule to test their viability to be embedded into confectionery products. I worked with with Prof Ashok Kumar Muthupandian and Dr Meifang Zhou from Chemistry Department on the microcapsules work. As a post-doctoral research scientist at The University of Melbourne (from 2013 to 2014), I worked in the area of colloids, soft matter and surface science. My research focused on measuring the interaction forces between colliding emulsion drops using Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). This work was done to correlate the fundamental understanding to the stability of emulsions in the presence of mixed surfactant (ionic and non-ionic) systems in relation to food emulsion. This study has a very direct consequence in the design and formulation of detergents, cosmetics and food emulsions using mixed surfactants. At Xerox Research, I contributed extensively to Nanotechnology research group which had a goal of using the recently developed nanotechnology tools to improve and enhance the efficiency of print surfaces used in various Xerox printers.

Teaching Experience:

1. During my doctoral study at Lehigh, I taught a Physical Chemistry Lab Course for two semesters and evaluated detailed lab reports of undergraduate students to assess and provide suggestions to improve their writing abilities. 2. I also worked as a Teaching Assistant for a Fluid Mechanics course for a semester.

Future Directions: As a faculty candidate I would like to apply the knowledge that I acquired in Colloids and Surface Science through my experience in Emulsion Formulations, Microcapsules fabrication using ultrasound, Extraction of bio fuels from Algae, and Wetting to various fundamental and industrial problems in Chemical Engineering Area. For example, Ultrasound cn be used to synthesize microcapsules for Carbon Capture nad Recovery.

Selected Publications:

1. (*Corresponding author) Srinivas Mettu, Joe Berry and Raymond Dagastine "Charge and film drainage of colliding oil drops coated with the non-ionic surfactant C12E5" Published online, Langmuir, 2017, 10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b04632.

2. Joe Berry, Srinivas Mettu and Raymond Dagastine "From Reissner to Hertz: Precise measurements of capsule and particle mechanical properties using indentation” Soft Matter 13, 1943-1947, 2017.

3. (*Corresponding author) S Tan, Srinivas Mettu, MD Biviano, M Zhou, B Babgi, J White, RR Dagastine, and M Ashokkumar "Ultrasonic synthesis of stable oil filled microcapsules using thiolated chitosan and their characterization by AFM and numerical simulations" Soft Matter, 2016, 12, 7212-7222.

4. Srinivas Mettu, M Zhou, BL. Tardy, M Ashokkumar and RDagastine “Temperature dependent mechanical properties of air, oil and water filled microcapsules studied by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)” Polymer, 2016, 102, 333–341.

5. Srinivas Mettu, MKanungo, KYLaw, “Anomalous Thermal Induced Pinning of a Liquid Drop on a Solid Substrate” Langmuir, 2013, 29, 10665-10673.

6. Srinivas Mettu, MKChaudhury, “Vibration Spectroscopy of a Sessile Drop and Its Contact Line” Langmuir, 2012, 28, 14100–14106.

7. Srinivas Mettu, MKChaudhury, “Motion of Liquid Drops on Surfaces Induced by Asymmetric Vibrations: Role of Contact Angle Hysteresis” Langmuir, 2011, 27, 10327-10333.

8. Srinivas Mettu, MKChaudhury, “Stochastic Relaxation of the Contact Line of a Water Drop on a Solid Substrate Subjected to White Noise Vibration: Roles of Hysteresis”, Langmuir, 2010, 26, 8131–8140.

9. Srinivas Mettu, NVerma, and RPChhabra, "Momentum and Heat Transfer from an Asymmetrically Confined Circular Cylinder in a Plane Channel", Heat Mass Transfer, 2006, 42, 1037-1048.