Sept. 26, Srinagar: The car industry has placed a high priority on lightweight design to improve fuel economy and acceleration. However, this pursuit has sparked worries about safety since common materials like plastic and aluminium provide insufficient compressibility, threatening serious harm and injuries even in relatively small incidents.
Here comes Bisma Parveez, a motivated material scientist from Srinagar who is leading initiatives to change the automobile industry.
The project has been in progress for the last two years in Malaysia. “Isn’t it amazing that the world around us is made of materials and that we can always improve the materials to make our lives better?” adds Bisma.
After several attempts, Bisma and her boss, Dr. Ayuni Jamal, finally succeeded in fusing diamond with porous aluminium, creating a 40% lighter but stronger and more compressible alloy than that used in automobiles.
One would worry whether using diamonds in automotive components will increase the cost of vehicles, but Bisma tells us that won’t be the case. She obtained diamond dust from a Chinese laboratory.
In the event of a vehicle collision, Bisma says, “My material is lightweight and has compressibility, which is important to protect human lives and minimise the damage to car components.”
She claims that the substance may be used as filler in the crash boxes of automobiles.
One of the most crucial tools for absorbing impact energy is the impact box, a part installed in the front of an automobile.
However, the road to this breakthrough wasn’t as straightforward as one would anticipate.
Bisma Parveez, a 31-year-old material scientist at the International Islamic University of Malaysia, was driven by curiosity but struggled through discouragement, failures, and previous experiences because of fear of repeating others who had attempted this previously but failed.
Additionally, anytime she felt like giving up, she would have flashbacks of the time she originally entered the field of material sciences, which kept her motivated.
As a result, COVID-19 kept her away from the university lab. “But the work solely depended on it, so I utilised that time to explore previous works while also publishing three review papers,” explains Bisma.
According to Bisma, “My mind was completely focused on my material; I didn’t even explore the country.”
The samples continued failing; however, when she returned to the lab, she was “followed by frustrations, disappointments, and finally hope,” she recalls while reliving the experience.
Despite persistent failure, she persisted. All I did was work, eat, sleep, and repeat while I was at the lab, says Bisma.
