Biography
Sushil Kumar Mukherjee, Indian agricultural chemist (Barisal, Bengal 13 October 1914 – Kolkata 18 November 2006)
Authored over 200 research papers
Suggested potentiometric titration of clays with tetramethylammonium hydroxide in the presence of its salts
Proposed non-equivalence of binding sites
Applied the concept of Donnan equilibrium for the determination of ion activity in colloidal clays
Reported that metal ions exchanged followed the order Cu 2+> Mn 2+> Zn 2+
Showed that non-ionic organic molecules of polar character could be absorbed on its basal plane surfaces
Demonstrated the usefulness of viscosity measurements in estimation of the predominant clay mineral in artificial mixtures or soils
Established that all humic fractions exhibited a peak at 465 nm using fluorescence excitation spectroscopy
Demonstrated that clay bound with humus is much more resistant to microbial attack than humus alone
Laid the foundation for the development of macromolecular structures of humic substances
DEVELOPED
A membrane with semiconducting properties under C.E. Marshall in United States
KCl-KOH method to determine the exchange capacity of clays
HONOURS
Honorary Member, International Union of Soil Science (1966)
