Engineering of Thermoplastic Elastomer with Graphene and Other Anisotropic Nanofillers

Dr. Abhijit Bandyopadhyay is presently working as a full Professor in the Department of Polymer Science and Technology, University of Calcutta, along with as the Technical Director in South Asia Rubber and Polymers Park (SARPOL), West Bengal. He did his B.Sc. (Chem. Hons.) from the University of Calcutta securing 1st class in the year 1997 followed by B.Tech. and M.Tech. in Polymer Science and Technology from the University of Calcutta in the year 2000 and 2002, respectively, with 1st class and subsequently completed Ph.D. in the year 2005 in Polymer Nanocomposites from Rubber Technology Centre, IIT Kharagpur. Before joining the University of Calcutta in November 2008, he worked as an Assistant Professor in Rubber Technology Centre, IIT Kharagpur, during 2007–2008. Dr. Bandyopadhyay has published 90 papers in high impact international journals, and 3 books and has filed two Indian patents so far. He has successfully handled many funded research projects and did consultancies for renowned companies like Exide Industries Ltd., Philips Carbon Black Ltd., etc. He is the Fellow of the International Congress for Environmental Research (since 2010), Associate Member of Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers and Life Member of Society for Polymer Science, Kolkata Chapter and Indian Rubber Institute, respectively. He is the Editorial Board Member of two international Journalsjournals. He has more than 12 years of teaching and research experience. He has been awarded with Young Scientist Award by Materials Research Society of India, Kolkata Chapter in 2005 and Career Award for Young Teachers by All India Council for Technical Education, Government of India, in 2010. His research areas include polymer nanocomposites, reactive blending, adhesion, polymer hydrogel in drug delivery, waste-polymer composites, green polymer composites and hyperbranched polymers. He has successfully supervised 11 research students for their doctorate degree so far and 4 more are presently working under him.  Ms. Poulomi Dasgupta completed her graduation with Chemistry (Hons.) from Vidyasagar College (Kolkata) in 2013. She subsequently received her B.Tech. (2016) and M.Tech. (2019) degrees at the Department of Polymer Science and Technology at the University of Calcutta. She was awarded gold medal from the University of Calcutta (during B.Tech.). She was a recipient of GATE fellowship, AICTE, Government of India, during M.Tech. Prior to joining M.Tech., she worked with Indag Rubber, Himachal Pradesh as an R&D executive. Currently, she is associated with TCG Lifescience (Chembiotek Research International) as a Research Chemist. Her area of research was based on ‘Development of thermo-responsive self-healable elastomeric compound and its characterization.’ Mr. Sayan Basak has completed his B.Tech. from the Department of Polymer Science and Technology, University of Calcutta, India (2015–2019), and is currently pursuing hisPh.D. from the School of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Akron, USA (2019–2024). His undergraduate research interest, along with his present research domain, revolves working with thermoplastic elastomers and multi-component polymer systems, thereby prospecting into new materials to develop smart polymer materials for new-age applications. Apart from being a budding technologist, he loves to spend his time creating content, which is supported by The Society of Plastic Engineers, The Times of India and Medium on sustainability, recyclability and green chemistry. 

Introduction.- Anisotropic Nanofillers in TPE.- Preparation of Graphene based nanocomposite based on TPE.- Structure – property co-relation of Graphene/ Graphene derivative Based TPE.- Potential application of Graphene-TPE nanocomposite.- Conclusion.