UoH, IIT-H Secure Patent for Rapid Production of Ultra-Thin Nanomaterials
According to the researchers, conventional methods used to isolate these materials are often time-consuming.
Hyderabad: A team from the University of Hyderabad (UoH) and Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT Hyderabad) has secured an Indian patent for a new method that could make the production of advanced nanomaterials faster, cheaper and easier to scale for industrial use.
The patent, for ‘Method for fabricating one or more layered TMDC material using Bessel beam femtosecond laser ablation (Grant No. 593108)’, was granted on June 23. The inventors were listed as Sai Santosh Kumar Raavi, Challa Rajendra Kumar, Moram Sree Satya Bharati and Soma Venugopal Rao. Researchers said the development could contribute to advances in nanotechnology, semiconductor devices and energy applications.
The technology focused on producing ultra-thin sheets of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), a class of two-dimensional materials widely studied for use in next-generation electronics, solar cells, photodetectors, LEDs and spintronic devices.
According to the researchers, conventional methods used to isolate these materials are often time-consuming, expensive, chemically intensive and difficult to scale. The newly patented process uses ultra-short femtosecond laser pulses shaped into a specialised Bessel beam to separate atomically thin layers from a TMDC pellet in a single step.
The process operates under ambient conditions and does not require complex masks or high-cost vacuum systems typically associated with other fabrication techniques. Researchers said it enables precise control over the thickness of the material while minimising thermal damage and structural defects.
The patent summary states that the technique can produce high-quality mono-layer and bi-layer nanosheets with high yield, making it suitable for industrial-scale applications.
The innovation emerged from a collaboration between IIT Hyderabad and the School of Physics at the University of Hyderabad. Soma Venugopal Rao is a professor at UoH, while Moram Sree Satya Bharati carried out doctoral research at the university before continuing collaborative work with IIT Hyderabad.
