Dr D Rajarathnam, PhD

Lecturer

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Faculty of Engineering, 4 Engineering Drive 4

National University of Singapore

Singapore 117576

Tel: (+65)-6516 8609

Fax: (+65)-6779 1936

E-Mail: chedr@nus.edu.sg

Education:

o        Ph.D (Physical-Organic Chemistry): 1989-1995, Annamalai University, Tamilnadu, India-608002

o        M.Sc (Applied Chemistry): 1985-1987, Anna University, Tamilnadu, India- 600025

o        B.Sc (General Chemistry): 1982-1985, Madurai Kamaraj University, Tamilnadu, India- 625021

 

Experience:

1. Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576

    July 2009 to Till Date - Lecturer

    March 2006 to June 2009 - Instructor

    March 1997 to February 2006 - Professional Officer

 

2. Opto Pharm Pte Ltd, 13 Tuas Avenue 12, Singapore 639035, Tel: (+65)-6861 4801

    August 1995 to February 1997 - R&D Chemist (Quality Control)

 

Teaching/Training modules

Graduate Modules (Teaching): 

1. ‘Instrumental Methods of Analysis’ (CN 5193, M Eng Chemical)

2. ‘Pharmaceuticals and Fine Chemicals’ (CN 5222, M Eng Chemical)

 

Undergraduate Modules (Teaching): 

3. ‘Food Technology and Engineering’ (CN 4215, B Eng Chemical)

4. ‘Food Technology and Engineering’ (CN 4215E, B Tech Chemical)

5. ‘Engineering Professionalism’ (EG 2401, B Eng Common)

 

Undergraduate Modules (Analytical Instruments Training):

6. ‘Final Year Research Project’ (CN 4118, B Eng Chemical)

7. ‘Final Year Research Project’ (TC 4118, B Tech Chemical)

(Quick reference: https://share.nus.edu.sg/eng/chbestu/Lists/Announcements/Attachments/23/Manual%20for%20Instrumental%20Chemical%20Analysis.pdf)

 

Chemical analytical facilities in-charge: 

Hyphenated Systems:

1. TGA-IR and TGA-MSD

(TA 2050/Bio-Rad TGA/IR Interface/Thermostar Balzer mass spectrometer, amu: 200)

 

2. GC-MSD, 2 units (HP 1530A/1099A, amu: 800) and (Agilent 7890A/5975C, amu: 1050)

 

3. LC-MSD with variable wavelength detector and refractive index detector (LC Series 1100: HP G 1328A/ G 1946A, amu: 2500)

 

Stand-alone Systems:

1. FT-IR  spectrometer (near-, mid- and far-IR ranges) and FT-IR Microscope (mid-IR). (Bio-Rad Excalibur FTS 3500/UMA 500, with interchangeable beam-splitters and detectors)

 

Accessories: Universal sampling accessory for micro-transmission, variable angle specular reflectance and DRIFTS with KRS-5 wire grid polarizer, dedicated variable angle specular reflectance, single bounce ATR (450 ZnSe prism), multiple bounce variable angle ATR (ZnSe trapezoid), PAS detector, micro-ATR with Germanium crystal and micro-grazing angle with KRS-5 wire grid polarizer

 

2. FT-Raman spectrometer, FT-IR Emission spectrometer and VCD/PM-IRRAS spectrometer (mid-IR). (Bruker Equinox 55/FRA 106S/PMA 37 with interchangeable beam-splitters and detectors)

 

Accessories: Integrated DRIFTS (mid-IR and near-IR), polarized Raman, Raman long path cell, Raman cold cell and PM-IRRAS sample holders

 

3. UV/Vis spectropolarimeter/spectrometers. (Jasco J 810/Shimadzu UV-1601/UV-3101)

 

4. UV/Vis/NIR spectrometer (Double beam optical bench) (Perkin-Elmer Lambda 900)

 

5. Fluoroscence spectrometer (steady state + life time measurement modes) (PTI International (GL-3300/GL-302) with Xe lamp and N2 laser source)

 

6. HPLC (LC series 1200) with variable wavelength detector, diode array detector and fraction collector

 

7. SEC (Waters-1515) with VWD and RID

 

8. DSC (Mettler-Toledo 822e) with cryogenic measurements

 

9. TG-DTA (Shimadzu, DTG-60AH) with two external gas mixing controllers

 

10. X-Ray fluorescence spectrometer (Bruker, Ranger S2)

 

11. TOC Analyzer (Shimadzu TOC-5000A)

 

12. CHN/S Analyzer (Perkin-Elmer PE-2400)

 

Facilities website: http://www.chbe.nus.edu.sg/research/facilities.html#1 and http://www.chbe.nus.edu.sg/research/facilities.html#3

 

Services:

Member:

1. Departmental Outreach Committee

2. Academic Affairs Committee (Year 2 Coordinator)

 

Reviewer:

1. International Journal of Chemical Kinetics (John Wiley & Sons, US)

2. Journal of Chemical Education (American Chemical Society, US)

3. European Polymer Journal (Elsevier, UK)

 

Research fields: 

Physical-organic chemistry, Materials characterization and Physico-chemical analysis

 

Research Publications: 37  (Updated: 04 November 2009)

 

Journal Articles: 21

 

1. ‘Synthesis of Short Chain Thiol Capped Gold Nanoparticles, Their Stabilization and Immobilization on Silicon Surface’, Srinivasan, M.P, Dharmarajan, R and Gupta, Raju, The Journal of Physical Chemistry (Communicated: jp-2009-100569)

 

2. ‘Sol-gel synthesis of iron (III)-doped TiO2 nanopowders for solar-light-responsive photocatalysis, , Fang Han, Venkata Subba Rao Kambala, Dharmarajan R, Madapusi Srinivasan, and Ravi Naidu*, Journal of the American Chemical Society (Communicated: ja-2009-04866h)

 

3. ‘Polyamide-imide nanofiltration hollow fiber membranes with elongation-induced nano-pore evolution’, Shi Peng Sun, Kai Yu Wang, D Rajarathnam, T Alan Hatton and Tai-Shung Chung*, AIChE Journal (In Press, Ref# AIChE-09-11951.R1)

 

4.  ‘Adsorption states of protium and deuterium in redeposited polymer hydrocarbon films from a T-10 Tokamak’, N Yu Svechnikov*, V G Stankevich, L P Sukhanov, K A Menshikov, A M Lebedev, B N Kolbasov, Y V Zubavichus and D Rajarathnam, Journal of Surface Investigation. X-Ray, Synchrotron and Neutron Techniques, Vol 3, 420-428, 2009.

 

5. ‘Tailored titanium dioxide photocatalysts for the degradation of organic dyes in wastewater treatment: A Review’, Fang Han, Venkata Subba Rao Kambala, Madapusi Srinivasan, Dharmarajan Rajarathnam and Ravi Naidu*, Applied Catalysis A: General, Vol 359, 25-40, 2009. (Review article)

 

6. ‘Study of microimpurities and charge states in homogenous hydrocarbon films(redeposited from a T-10 Tokamak deuterium plasma discharge) using XRF analysis, IR spectroscopy, EPR and I-V characteristics’, N Yu Svechnikov*, V G Stankevich, K A Menshikov, A M Lebedev, B N Kolbasov, V A Trunova, D Rajarathnam and Yu. Kostetski, Journal of Surface Investigation. X-Ray, Synchrotron and Neutron Techniques, Vol 2, 826-835, 2008.

 

7. ‘Investigations of adsorption states of protium and deuterium in redeposited carbon flakes formed in tokamak T-10’, N Yu Svechnikov*, V G Stankevich, L P Sukhanov, K A Menshikov, A M Lebedev, B N Kolbasov, Y V Zubavichus and D Rajarathnam, Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol 376, 152-159, 2008.

  

8. ‘Remote Monitoring of a Multi-Component Liquid Phase Organic Synthesis by Infrared Emission Spectroscopy: The Recovery of Pure Component Emissivities by BTEM’, by Shuying Cheng, Martin Tjahjono, D Rajarathnam, Chuanzhao Li, Ilya Lyapkalo, David Chen and Marc Garland*, Applied Spectroscopy, Vol61,1057-1062, 2007.

 

9. ‘Application of Band-Target Entropy Minimization (BTEM) to Infrared Emission Spectroscopy and the Reconstruction of Pure Component Emittance Spectra from Thin Films and Liquid Samples’ Shuying Cheng, D Rajarathnam, Mei Ling Tan and Marc Garland*, Applied Spectroscopy, Vol60, 521-528, 2006.

 

10. ‘Temperature and spectroscopic characteristics of homogeneous co-deposited carbon/deuterium films from the T-10 tokamak’, N Yu Svechnikov*, V G Stankevich, A M Lebedev, K A Menshikov, B N Kolbasov, M I Guseva, L N Khimchenko, D Rajarathnam and Yu Kostetsky, Plasma Devices and Operations, Vol14, 137-157, 2006.

 

11. ‘Spectroscopic studies of homogeneous thin carbon erosion films on mirrors and flakes with a high deuterium content formed in tokamak T-10’, N Yu Svechnikov*, V G Stankevich, A M Lebedev, K A Menshikov, B N Kolbasov, M I Guseva, K Yu Vukolov, D Rajarathnam, N M Kocherginsky and Yu Kostetski, Fusion Engineering and Design, Vol75-79, 339-344, 2005.

 

12. ‘Spectroscopic investigations of smooth hydrocarbon deuterated erosion flakes deposited from tokamak T-10 deuterium plasma discharge’, N Yu Svechnikov, V G Stankevich, A M Lebedev*, K A Menshikov, B N Kolbasov, N M Kocherginsky, D Rajarathnam, Yu Kostetski, S N Ivanov and V V Kriventsov, Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research – Section A, Vol543, 225-228, 2005.

 

13. ‘Mechanistic change in the reactivity of substituted phenyl acetates over phenyl thiolacetates toward imidazole in aqueous phase’, D Rajarathnam*, T Jeyakumar and  P Ananthakrishna Nadar,  Int J Chem Kinet, Vol37, 211-221, 2005.

 

14. ‘Studies of temperature and spectroscopic characteristics of homogeneous carbon-deuterium erosion films from Tokamak T-10’, N Yu Svechnikov*, V G Stankevich, A M Lebedev, K A Men’shikov, B N Kolbasov, M I Guseva, L N Khimchenko, N M Kocherginsky, D Rajarathnam, Yu Kostetski, Problems of Atomic Science and Technique (Voprosy Atomnoi Nauki i Tekhniki, Seriya: Termoyadernyi Sintez) (Russian)-Issue 3, 3-24, 2004.

 

15. ‘Investigation of kinetics of 4-methylpentene-1 polymerization using Ziegler-Natta type catalysts’, R Balaji, H Kothandaraman and D Rajarathnam*, J. App. Polym. Sci., Vol.88, 2468-2477, 2003.

 

16. 'Polymerization of 4-methylpentene-1 using homogeneous Ziegler-Natta type catalysts: A kinetic study', R Balaji, H Kothandaraman and D Rajarathnam*, Eur. Polym. J., Vol.38, 1055-1063, 2002.

 

17.  'Structure-reactivity correlation in the aminolysis of 4-fluorophenyl acetate in aqueous medium', D Rajarathnam*, T Jeyakumar and P Ananthakrishna Nadar, Int. J. Chem. Kinet., Vol.34, 366-373, 2002. 

    

18.  ‘Enhanced reactivity in the ammonolysis of phenyl thiolacetates in aqueous medium’, D Rajarathnam*, J Babu and P Ananthakrishna Nadar, Int. J. Chem. Kinet., Vol.34, 18-26, 2002.

 

19.  ‘A linear Bronsted-type behaviour in the aminolysis of substituted naphthyl acetates’, D Rajarathnam* and P Ananthakrishna Nadar, Int. J. Chem. Kinet., Vol.33, 157-164, 2001.

 

20. ‘Kinetics and mechanism of ammonolysis and alkaline hydrolysis of naphthyl acetates in aqueous medium: Part II: 6 -substituted 2-naphthyl acetates’, P Ananthakrishna Nadar* and D Rajarathnam, Ind. J. Chem., Vol.37A, 342-345, 1998.

 

21. ‘Kinetics and mechanism of ammonolysis and alkaline hydrolysis of naphthyl acetates in aqueous medium: Part I: 4-substituted 1-naphthyl acetates’, P Ananthakrishna Nadar* and D Rajarathnam, Ind. J. Chem., Vol.36A, 749-753, 1997.

 

Conference Papers: 16

1. ‘Molecular engineering of nanoporous hollow fiber membranes for NF and bio-molecular separations’, Shi Peng Sun, Kai Yu Wang, D Rajarathnam, T Alan Hatton and Tai-Shung Chung*, AIChE 2009 Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN, USA, 08-13 November, 2009, Division: Advances in Liquid Separation Membranes and Applications, (Accepted)

 

2. ‘Fabrication of polythiophene hybrid structures on silicon surfaces by covalent molecular assembly’, J Sundaramurthy, D Rajarathnam and M P Srinivasan*, International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies (ICMAT-2009), Symposium J (Nanodevices and Nanofabrication), pp.J60, Singapore, 28 June – 03 July, 2009.

 

3. ‘Langmuir-Blodgett assembly of  4-methylbenzenethiol-functionalized Au nanoparticles for non-volatile memory applications, R K Gupta, D Y Kusuma, P S Lee, D Rajarathnam and M P Srinivasan*, International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies (ICMAT-2009), Symposium J (Nanodevices and Nanofabrication), pp.J56, Singapore, 28 June – 03 July, 2009.

 

4. ‘Study of hydrocarbon flakes redeposited from T-10 Tokamak deuterium plasma discharges’, V G Stankevich*, N Yu Svechnikov et al., and D Rajarathnam, The 17th International Colloquium on Plasma Processes (CIP 09), Marseille convention Centre, Marseille (France), June 22-26, 2009

 

5. ‘Adsorption states of protium and deuterium in polymer hydrocarbon films from T-10 Tokamak’, V G Stankevich*, N Yu Svechnikov, L P Sukhanov,  K A Menshikov, A M Lebedev, B N Kolbasov, Y V Zubavichus, and D Rajarathnam, 9th International Workshop on Hydrogen Isotopes in Fusion Reactor Materials, (Technical Session 4), Salamanca, Spain, June 02-03, 2008.

 

6.’Trace contaminants and charge states of homogeneous carbon flakes from T-10 Tokamak deuterium plasma discharges studied through XRF analysis, EPR, FT-IR spectroscopy and I-V characteristics’, N Yu Svechnikov* , V G Stankevich, K A Menshikov, A M Lebedev, B N Kolbasov, V A Trunova,  D Rajarathnam, Yu Kostetski, 18th International Conference on Plasma Surface Interactions, (P3-17), Toledo, Spain, 26-30 May, 2008.

 

7. ‘Adsorption states of protium and deuterium in redeposited polymeric hydrocarbon films from Tokamak T-10’, N Yu Svechnikov*, V G Stankevich, L P Sukhanov, K A Menshikov, A M Lebedev, B N Kolbasov, Y V Zubavichus, D Rajarathnam,  6th National Conference on Application of X-ray, Synchrotron Radiation, Neutrons and Electrons for Material Characterization (RSNE-2007), Moscow, Russia, 12-17 November, 2007.

 

8. ‘Investigations of micro-impurities and charge states of smooth carbon flakes redeposited from the T-10 Tokamak deuterium plasma discharge through XRF, FT-IR, EPR and I-V characteristics’, N Yu Svechnikov*, V G Stankevich, K A Menshikov, A M Lebedev, B N Kolbasov, V A Trunova,  D Rajarathnam, Yu Kostetski, 6th National Conference on Application of X-ray, Synchrotron Radiation, Neutrons and Electrons for Material Characterization (RSNE-2007), Moscow, Russia, 12-17 November, 2007.

 

9. ‘Infrared emission spectroscopy and the spectral reconstruction of pure component emittance spectra from liquid samples using band-target entropy minimization (BTEM)’, S Cheng, D Rajarathnam, M L Tan and M Garland*, 231st ACS National Meeting, ANYL-318, Atlanta, GA, USA, 26 – 30 March 2006.    

 

10. ‘Speciation of nitrogen-containing polycyclic aromatic compounds via Raman spectroscopy and entropy minimization’, S Cheng, D Rajarathnam, L Yu and M Garland*, 229th ACS National Meeting,10-TECH: Analytical Chemistry in the Atmospheric Sciences – 300, San Diego (CA), USA, 13 – 17 March 2005.

 

11. ‘Infrared emission pure component spectral reconstruction from solid samples using Band-Target Entropy Minimization (BTEM) method’, S Cheng, D Rajarathnam, K H Yeo, X Hong and M Garland*,  229th ACS National Meeting, 8-TECH: General Papers-Spectroscopy – 107, San Diego (CA), USA, 13 – 17 March 2005.

 

12.  ‘Spectroscopic studies of homogeneous thin carbon erosion films on mirrors and flakes with a high deuterium content formed in Tokamak T-10’, N Yu Svechnikov, V G Stankevich, A M Lebedev*, K A Menshikov, B N Kolbasov, L N Khimchenko, N M Kocherginsky, D Rajarathnam and Yu Kostetski, 23rd Symposium on Fusion Technology, pp. P4C-F-279, Venice, Italy, 20 – 24 September 2004.

 

13. ‘Spectroscopic investigations of smooth hydrocarbon deuterated erosion flakes deposited from Tokamak T-10 deuterium plasma discharge’, N Yu Svechnikov, A M Lebedev*, K A Menshikov, V G Stankevich, M I Guseva, B N Kolbasov, L N Chimchenko, N M Kocherginsky, D Rajarathnam and Yu Kostetski, XV International Synchrotron Radiation Conference, pp.66, Novosibirst, Russia, 19 – 23 July 2004.

 

14. ‘Thermal and spectroscopical characterization  of Tokamak T-10   smooth   deuterated carbon erosion films’, V G Stankevich*,   B N Kolbasov,   N Yu Svechnikov,  N M Kocherginsky, D Rajarathnam and Yu Kostetski, International Conference on Materials for   Advanced  Technologies  (ICMAT-2003), Symposium I (Advanced  polymers), pp. I-8-13P, Singapore, 07 – 12 December 2003.

 

15. ‘A  high  pressure  spectroscopic  cell  with  micro-mixing  chamber  for  FTIR-VCD  and  UV/Vis-CD measurements’, Y Zhao, W Chua, D Rajarathnam and M Garland*, AIChE Annual Meeting, San Francisco, USA, 16 – 21 November 2003.

 

16. ‘Measurements of trans-membrane potential and ionic selectivity of bio-mimetic memranes’, N M Kocherginsky* and D Rajarathnam, World Federation of Engineering Organizations/American Society for Engineering Education E-Conference, Tennesse, USA, 22 June 2003.

 

 

Final Year B Eng Research Projects Co-supervised/Participated:

 

Academic Year 2008-09:

1. Characterization of microcapsules and core-shell materials

2. Use of indigenous materials for removal of toxic metals from wastewater – 1

3. Use of indigenous materials for removal of toxic metals from wastewater – 2

4. Monitoring of flavor change in food materials during drying in different environments

5. Use of indigenous materials for removal of heavy metals from wastewater

6. Monitoring of flavor changes in pineapple during heat pump drying

 

Academic Year 2007-08:

1. Characterization of microcapsules and core-shell materials

2. Spectroscopic characterization of molecularly assembled ultra-thin films

3. Monitoring of flavor change in food materials during drying and storage

4. Use of indigenous materials for removal of heavy metals from wastewater

 

Academic year 2005-06:

1. Effect of path length in infrared emission spectroscopy

2. Quantitative flavor analysis through SPME sampling and GC/MSD analysis for durian

3. Extraction and identification of steroids through LC/MSD and GC/MSD

4. Monitoring liquid phase reactions through infrared emission spectroscopy: cycloaddition reactions

5. Flavor change during drying and storage: sampling through SPME and GC/MSD analysis for strawberry

 

Academic year 2004-05:

1. The use of Raman spectroscopy for in-situ reaction studies.

2. Studies on infrared emission spectroscopy using ultrasonics.

3. Identification of low concentration of NPACs using FT-Raman spectroscopy.

4. Heat pump drying of food materials: monitoring of flavor change during drying and storage through SPME.

5. Prevalence of microplastics in Singapore's marine environment.

6. Drying of heat sensitive food Materials in heat pump dryer.

7. Construction of integrated IR emission cell and measurement of emission spectra of simple polymers.

8. ATR Spectroscopy and BTEM.

 

Academic year 2003-04:

1. Molecular assembly in dense gas media: characterization through FT-IR spectrometry.

2. Identification of PAHs in solution using FT-IR and FT-Raman spectroscopy.

3. Characterization of microbial in airborne aerosols using FT-IR and FT-Raman spectroscopy.

4. Rapid analysis of pharmaceuticals through integrated DRIFTS in the mid-IR range and chemometrics.

5. Rapid analysis of pharmaceuticals through FT-Raman and chemometrics.

6. Polarized IRRAS measurements of thin films.

 

Academic year 2002-03

1. Electrospray Mass Spectroscopy, Homogeneous Catalysis and Chemometrics.

2. Surfactant enhanced electro-kinetic remediation of contaminated soil.

3. Safety, health and environmental management in a tertiary education institution: The study of its organization, policies and manpower.

  

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