Replacement of electronic equipment is very often necessary, due to the rapid technological progress, leading to huge amounts that end up as waste. C-MET Hyderabad has developed a process technology for the recovery of valuable and precious metals from spent printed circuit boards, which includes both hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical operations. The technology offered is environmentally safe which conforms to CPCB requirements and economically viable. The technology is demonstrated at laboratory level and semi pilot plant scale (100 kg/day) at C-MET Hyderabad.

A demonstration plant established at C-MET, Hyderabad and the facilities are being extended to informal recyclers for processing of spent PCBs on chargeable basis. Three dismantlers have utilized C-MET facilities for processing their spent PCB materials. Technology know-how is transferred to M/s. Namo Ewaste, Faridabad for commercial utilization.

C-MET, Hyderabad laboratory has also established a state-of-the-art chemical testing facility for the analysis of electronic and related samples to help the industries and developed a mechanism to identify and quantify the substances banned under RoHS, Directive. This is the only RoHS testing facility in India established with Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), Government of India financial support.

C-MET has developed requisite infrastructure, state of the art characterization facility and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as per IEC 62321:2012 standard.  RoHS analysis of variety of samples are being carried out using advanced characterization techniques.  This RoHS test facility is accredited as per ISO 17025:2005 standard by National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories (NABL), Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, with certificate No: T-1780 in the field of chemical analysis of electronic materials (polymers, metals, etc.).

C-MET has been working in the area of Low Temperature Co-Fired Ceramic (LTCC) since year 2006. LTCC is a multilayer fabrication process in glass-ceramic regime that primarily creates high density circuit boards with integrated passive components. LTCC finds applications in various fields. The materials property of low dielectric constant and low dielectric loss and inherent high reliability makes LTCC suitable for microwave circuits, allowing applications, in communications, military and aerospace. LTCC also finds applications in packaging of Integrated circuits, Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and Integrated Micro Systems. This capability opens up a host of additional applications in industry as well as healthcare. Recently, C-MET has developed indigenous LTCC tapes and pasts at pilot scale. C-MET, Pune has set-up state-of-the-art LTCC circuit and packages fabrication facility which is used to fabricate circuits, packages and materials. The facility comprises of possesses a ~200m3 clean room of Class 10000 that houses the complete LTCC processing facility including tape casting and materials preparation.

C-MET Thrissur focuses on development of hexaferrite based magneto-dielectric (MD) ceramic compositions that can be exploited for fabrication of dielectric substrates with application in antenna miniaturization. The flexible MD substrates for Radome application are also developed.

C-MET Thrissur also aims to develop ceramic compositions through scalable solid-state method for high dielectric constants substrates. The polybutadiene / ceramic composite laminates and Substrate Integrated Waveguides (SIW) are being developed for microwave and millimetre wave circuit applications

1. University of Leeds, UK
2. Institute of electronics - Bulgarian academy of sciences (IE-BAS), Bulgaria
3. Kobe University, Japan
4. Garcia University, Slovenia
5. National University of Singapore, Singapore
6. University of Aveiro, Portugal
7. University College of London, UK
8. TNTech University, USA
9. Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, South Korea
10. Chonnam National University, South Korea
11. Microlin, USA
12. Tokoshima University, Japan
13. Georgia tech, USA

Materials for Renewable Energy

• Solar cells: C-MET Pune has established the hybrid solar cell (inorganic-organic materials based) fabrication set up and developed conceptual solar cell. Also, DSSC and perovskite solar cell materials are being developed under this activity. 

• Hydrogen generation and storage: C-MET, Pune is working on the hydrogen generation using renewable energy source i.e. sunlight from water, hydrogen sulphide and biomass. The stable and economical photocatalysts (Nano Semiconductors) have been developed for hydrogen production   under natural sunlight from water and H2S. C-MET has established photoreceptor system which can produce hydrogen from H2S using Natural sunlight. The hydrogen storage materials such as Hollow glass microspheres and other hydride materials have been developed. 

• Fuel cells: Fuel cell is one of the efficient energy generation devices where hydrogen is a fuel and air is an oxidant. C-MET, Pune is working on PEM fuel cells where bimetallic economical nanophase catalysts have been developed. Proton conducting membranes are also developed for SOFC. Development of SOFC fuel cells using LTCC packaging is also in progress.

• Thermoelectric cells: C-MET, Pune is working on development of thermoelectric materials for energy generation from waste heat. Facilities for making thin films of materials have also been established.

  
  Energy storage Materials and Devices   

  The state of art facility for Li-ion and other rechargeable batteries fabrication has been established.  The cathode and anode materials for Li-ion batteries and sodium ion batteries have been developed.  The solid state Li-ion battery has also been demonstrated. Considering the demand of flexible electronics, flexible batteries have been developed. Rechargeable batteries are increasingly viewed as an important means of alleviating problems associated with an overdependence on fossil fuels, as they can serve as storage devices for renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, and as power sources in environmentally friendly vehicles (fully electric and hybrid cars) as well as in a host of consumer electronics, such as mobile phones and laptops. However, the low abundance and uneven distribution of lithium resources show the potential difficulties of the long-term and large-scale applications of lithium-ion batteries in terms of their availability and cost. Hence, the development of new types of batteries, such as sodium-ion and magnesium-ion batteries, is necessary. Among them, sodium-ion batteries (NIBs) possess electrochemical working principles that are similar to LIBs. In addition, sodium is inexpensive and abundant in nature. Sodium is the sixth richest element on earth. Therefore, NIBs could substitute LIBs in applications such as smart grids and large-scale energy storage for renewable solar power and wind power. 
  The major activities being carried out at C-MET Thrissur centre under materials for renewable energy are both Aerogel based and graphene based supercapacitors for potential applications in various sectors such as strategic, automobile, power electronics etc.

• C-MET is working on the development of Aerogel supercapacitors for various applications starting from raw material production at pilot plant level to fabrication of aerogel super capacitors upto 50F using in house indigenously established supercapacitor fabrication facility. Currently aerogel super capacitor is being tested as a power source for VVPAT of Electronic Voting Machine.

• C-MET has established a process for the production of continuous graphene electrodes suitable for supercapacitors. C-MET has developed graphene based supercapacitors having capacitance of 0.1F to 100F and achieved an ESR of 10 milliohm.

Nanomaterials and nanostructures play a critical role in the recent advancement of some of the key technologies associated with energy conversion and storage. Nanomaterials differ from micro sized and bulk materials not only in the scale of their characteristic dimensions, but also in the fact that they may possess new physical properties and offer new possibilities for various technical applications. Nonetheless, the reduction of electrode particle size to nano regime (few nm) in batteries leads to tremendously improved intercalation kinetics and ultimately enhances the overall degree of intercalation. This will also help to miniature the size of batteries.

• C-MET, Pune has established a large-scale production of nano powders using transferred/non-transferred arc plasma reactor for the need of VSSC/ISRO.

• Development of quantum dots of semiconductors and metals in glass, polymer matrices for optoelectronics and electronics

• Development of polymer nanocomposites

• Development of nanomaterials for photonics and electronics

• C-MET Thrissur focuses on synthesis of nanotubes of piezoelectric materials. Applications of these 1D materials for energy harvesting applications are being carried out.

• C-MET Thrissur is engaged in the development of low loss plasmonic materials and devices based on transparent conducing oxide films for various sensing applications. The centre is also engaged in the development of simple chemical routes such as spray coating for potential transparent heater films for defrosting and anti-icing applications.

C-MET Pune is developing materials and prototypes for different chemical sensors such as hydrogen, NOx and VOCs based on semiconductor materials for operating at high temperature as well as room temperature. The physical sensors such as photosensor, piezoresistive pressure sensors, temperature and IR sensors. C-MET Pune has also recently transferred the ToT on photosensor to M/s. Ants Innovation Pvt. Ltd. Palghar, Mumbai and other ToTs on sensors and materials are in pipeline. C-MET, Pune is presently working on digitalization of indigenous NOx sensor for ISRO and the development of smart parking management system using sensors, IoT and GIS technologies.

C-MET, Pune is developing conducting polymer composites based piezoresistive sensors for wearable biomedical applications. The sensors are potential in monitoring the physical actions, gesture, gait analysis, orthopaedical treatment and non-verbal communication applications etc.

Under this programme the main thrust is on the development of thermal sensors for weather balloons, nano material based thick film sensors and development of micro actuators. Under thermal sensors, different NTC compositions, chip thermistors and chip in glass fast response thermal sensors are being developed suitable for various temperature ranges of sensing applications.

Under actuators the focus is on development of piezo actuators. Various designs of ceramic actuators help in meeting diverse field of applications. Flextensional (FT) actuators have been developed to meet the opposing requirements of displacement and generative force and gives excellent amplification of displacement. The heart of FT device is a stack of multi layer actuators so that the device can be operated at lower voltages. (Dr. NRaghu and Dr. SB Rane)