Deepak Bansilal Akolekar

Name: Deepak Bansilal Akolekar
Title: Dr.
Institution: RMIT University
Address: Department of Applied Chemistry, RMIT University, City campus
City, ZIP code: Melbourne 3001
Country: Australia
E-mail: E04781@ems.rmit.edu.au
Interests: Glassy and amorphous systems, High pressure studies, Environmental science, Catalysis, SEXAFS, Nanostructures and superlattices, High temperature studies, Materials science, Combined techniques, Quick EXAFS, XANES
Keywords: Catalysis; Catalytic reaction engineering, high pressure reactions;
gold nano-particles; alumina; advanced materials; zeolites; metal aluminophosphates; molecular sieves; clays; XRD; FTIR; Oil shale; wet oxidation; catalytic wet oxidation; surface sciences; adsorption/desortion; EXAFS; bayer process; waste water treatment; organic contaminants removal; partial oxidation of organics; gas separation; bauxite; alumina technology; industrial water/liqour treatment; carbons; micro- and mesoporous materials
Brief description of the work:
Dr. Akolekar specialises in the field of inorganic materials, catalysis, catalytic wet oxidation, high temperature reactions, Bayer process and sophisticated instrumental techniques. He has contributions in the fields of: catalytic wet oxidation of organics in Bayer liquor, Bayer process, zeolites; meso- and microporous materials; environmental catalysis; high temperature catalytic reactions, metal oxides, clays, organic reactions; gas separation; partial oxidation of methane/ethylene; and micro-and mesoporous carbons. He has extensive experience in materials preparation, characterisation, testing, and analysis and is a leading young researcher in Australia. He has used various routine (XRD, FTIR, FT Raman, BET, SEM, XPS) and sophisticated (solid state NMR, EXAFS, TEM etc.) techniques extensively in the characterisation of various inorganic materials.
In the field of materials, clay-zeolites transformation, catalysis, CWO, catalytic reactions etc., he has authored more than 90 international scientific publications including refereed journal & conference papers and 4 patents. His research work has generated considerable interest amongst international materials and catalysis research community, local aluminium industries and students, attracting scholarships and government/external funding to the value of (AU$ > 3.085 million). In the field of inorganic materials, Bayer process and catalysis, he has contributed significantly and gained an international reputation. The "CWO of organics in the Bayer liquor" (a collaborative project between the Alcoa World Alumina and RMIT) project has been successfully completed - leading to a number of publications, patents and two PhDs. He has been recepient of various international awards (Alexander von Humboldt, Germany; Natural Sceinces and Engineering Research Council, Canada, CSIR, India, JSPS; Australian research council- Research Fellowship; Australia).During the last 20 years, Dr. Akolekar has held scientific positions at the University of New South Wales, Sydney; Australia; University of Laval, Quebec, Canada; Fritz Haber Institute of Max Planck, Berlin, Germany; and National Chemical Laboratory, Poona, India.