EXPERIENCE

2006 - till date: Scientist (Senior Scale)

2001 - 2005: Scientist

EDUCATION

2007-2011: MBA, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi

2000-2005: PhD, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

1997-1999: M.Sc (Agri) in Agricultural Microbiology

                   Tamil Nadu Agricultural University

1992-1996: B.Sc (Agri), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University

PUBLICATIONS

JOURNALS:

Jain, P., Vigneshwaran, N. Effect of Fenton's pretreatment on cotton cellulosic substrates to enhance its enzymatic hydrolysis response (2011) accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology, 103 (2012) 219-226.   

Vigneshwaran, N., Ammayappan, L., Huang, Q. Effect of Gum arabic on distribution behaviour of nanocellulose fillers in starch film (2011) Applied Nanoscience, 1(3), pp. 137-142.

Karande, V.S., Bharimalla, A.K., Hadge, G.B., Mhaske, S.T., Vigneshwaran, N. Nanofibrillation of cotton fibers by disc refiner and its characterization (2011) Fibers and Polymers, 12 (3), pp. 399-404.

Satyamurthy, P., Jain, P., Balasubramanya, R.H., Vigneshwaran, N. Preparation and characterization of cellulose nanowhiskers from cotton fibres by controlled microbial hydrolysis (2011) Carbohydrate Polymers, 83 (1), pp. 122-129.

Prasad, V., Shaikh, A.J., Kathe, A.A., Bisoyi, D.K., Verma, A.K., Vigneshwaran, N. Functional behaviour of paper coated with zinc oxide-soluble starch nanocomposites (2010) Journal of Materials Processing Technology  210 (14), pp. 1962-1967.

Vigneshwaran, N., Bharimalla, A.K., Prasad, V., Kathe, A.A., Balasubramanya, R.H. Functional behaviour of polyethylene-ZnO nanocomposites (2008) Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology , 8 (8), pp. 4121-4126.

Chandramouleeswaran, S., Mhaske, S.T., Kathe, A.A., Varadarajan, P.V., Prasad, V., Vigneshwaran, N. Functional behaviour of polypropylene /ZnO-soluble starch nanocomposites (2007) Nanotechnology, 18 (38), art. no. 385702.

Vigneshwaran, N., Kathe, A.A., Varadarajan, P.V., Nachane, R.P., Balasubramanya, R.H. Silver-protein (core-shell) nanoparticle production using spent mushroom substrate (2007) Langmuir, 23 (13), pp. 7113-7117.

Vigneshwaran, N., Kathe, A.A., Varadarajan, P.V., Nachane, R.P., Balasubramanya, R.H. Functional finishing of cotton fabrics using silver nanoparticles (2007) Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 7 (6), pp. 1893-1897.

Vigneshwaran, N., Ashtaputre, N.M., Varadarajan, P.V., Nachane, R.P., Paralikar, K.M., Balasubramanya, R.H. Biological synthesis of silver nanoparticles using the fungus Aspergillus flavus (2007) Materials Letters, 61 (6), pp. 1413-1418.

Yadav, A., Prasad, V., Kathe, A.A., Raj, S., Yadav, D., Sundaramoorthy, C., Vigneshwaran, N. Functional finishing in cotton fabrics using zinc oxide nanoparticles (2006) Bulletin of Materials Science, 29 (6), pp. 641-645.

Vigneshwaran, N., Kathe, A.A., Varadarajan, P.V., Nachane, R.P., Balasubramanya, R.H. Biomimetics of silver nanoparticles by white rot fungus, Phaenerochaete chrysosporium (2006) Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, 53 (1), pp. 55-59.

Vigneshwaran, N., Kumar, S., Kathe, A.A., Varadarajan, P.V., Prasad, V. Functional finishing of cotton fabrics using zinc oxide-soluble starch nanocomposites (2006) Nanotechnology, 17 (20), art. no. 008, pp. 5087-5095.

Vigneshwaran, N., Nachane, R.P., Balasubramanya, R.H., Varadarajan, P.V. A novel one-pot 'green' synthesis of stable silver nanoparticles using soluble starch (2006) Carbohydrate Research, 341 (12), pp. 2012-2018.

Prasad, V., D'Souza, C., Yadav, D., Shaikh, A.J., Vigneshwaran, N. Spectroscopic characterization of zinc oxide nanorods synthesized by solid-state reaction (2006)Spectrochimica Acta - Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 65 (1), pp. 173-178.

Vigneshwaran, N., Bijukumar, G., Karmakar, N., Anand, S., Misra, A. Autofluorescence characterization of advanced glycation end products of hemoglobin (2005) Spectrochimica Acta - Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 61 (1-2), pp. 163-170.

Vigneshwaran, N., Natarajan, T. Nitrogen fixation by phylloplane bacterium, Bacillus macerans in cotton (2003) Indian Journal of Microbiology, 43 (2), pp. 107-109.

Bijukumar, G., Vigneshwaran, N., Karmakar, N., Anand, S., Misra, A. Evaluation of Autofluorescent property of hemoglobin-advanced glycation end product as a long-term glycemic index of diabetes (2003) Diabetes, 52, pp. 1041-1046.

Vigneshwaran, N., Bijukumar, G., Karmakar, N., Anand, S., Misra, A. Fluorescence and biochemical characterization of glycated hemoglobin (2003) Macromolecular Symposia, 193, pp. 119-127.

Book Chapters:

1)     Vigneshwaran, N. 2009. “Modification of textile surfaces using nanoparticles”, In: Surface modification of textiles (Ed. Q. Wei), Woodhead publishing limited, Cambridge. Pp. 164-184.

2)     "Application of Metallic Nanoparticles in Textiles" by N. Vigneshwaran, P.V. Varadarajan and R.H. Balasubramanya, chapter no. 14. pp. 541-558, in 'Nanomaterials for the Life Sciences vol. 1. Metallic Nanomaterials' Edited by Challa S. S. R. Kumar, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim, 2009.

3)     "Nanofinishing of Cotton Textiles", by N. Vigneshwaran and Virendraprasad, short communication in Nanotechnology: Nanofabrication, Patterning, and Self Assembly, Editors: Charles J. Dixon and Ollin W. Curtines, Series: Nanotechnology Science and Technology, ISBN: 978-1-60692-162-3.

4)     A booklet on "A Status Report on Nanocellulose and its Bio-nanocomposites" by N. Vigneshwaran and S.T. Mhaske was released by Prof. Panda on December 3, 2008 on the occasion of Launch workshop of NAIP subproject on Nanocellulose.

Research Areas:

• Nanocellulose and its Biopolymer-nanocomposites
• Nanofinishing of textile materials for improved functionalities
• Electrospinning of nanofibrils

Research Facilities in lab:

• Atomic force microscope
• Nanoparticle size analyzer
• High pressure homogenizer
• Fermentor
• Membrane Reactor
• Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography
• Fluorescence microscope
• Electrophoresis
• Ultra centrifuge
• High energy ball mill
• Freeze drier
• XRD, SEM

Patent obtained:

•  Indian Patent No: 242246. Title: “A process for the production of silver nanoparticles using the fungus, Pleurotus sajor-caju”.

Patents filed:

• Patent application No: 3012/MUM/2009, dt. 30-12-2009. Title: “A process for the preparation of cellulose nanoparticles using the fungus, Trichoderma reesei”
• Patent application No: 1193/MUM/2010, dt. 12-04-2010. Title: “Zinc chloride pretreatment of microcrystalline cellulose for preparation of nanocellulose by homogenization process”.

Awards & Distinctions:

• The John Plough Works Melur Endowment Prize during B.Sc. (Ag)
• IAUA Endowment Award during B.Sc (Ag)
• Dr. Selman A. Waksman Prize for the best student in M.Sc. (Ag)
• DOGRA Educational Endowment Award for best scientific paper publication for the year 2004 in Ph.D
• Young Scientist Award – 2007 by the Association of Microbiologists of India.
• ELSEVIER recognized our paper published in Carbohydrate Research as a “Top-25 most downloaded” article on Science Direct during 2006.
• IOP (Institute of Physics Publishers) has recognized our paper published in Nanotechnology as “More than 250 times downloaded” article during 2006.
• The Materials Research Society of India (MRSI) Prize has been awarded for the research paper  published in Bulletin of Materials Science

PROJECTS:

On-going Project

World Bank Funded NAIP project “Synthesis and characterization of nanocellulose and its application in biodegradable polymer composites to enhance their performance”, in collaboration with the Insititute for Chemical Technology, Mumbai from July 2008 to March 2012 with a budget outlay of Rs. 4.45 crores.

Completed Projects

• Application of silver nanoparticles for antimicrobial finishing of cotton textiles
• Application of zinc oxide nanoparticles for imparting different functional finishes to cotton textiles.
• Application of Nanoparticles in paper coating
• Microbial pigments for eco-friendly textile dyeing
• Scale-up trials on Dyeing of cotton with marigold and chrysanthemum flowers
• Prevention of Aflatoxin producing microorganisms in cottonseeds during storage

Technologies Developed:

• Synthesis of zinc oxide nanomaterials by wet chemical process using starch as stabilizing agent
• Enzymatic process for preparation of cellulose nanoparticles
• Microbial process for preparation of cellulose nanoparticles
• Chemo-mechanical process for production of cellulose nanofibrils
• Process for preparation of starch-nanocellulose and PVA-nanocellulose composites