The
MRS Medal is awarded for a specific outstanding recent
discovery or advancement which has a major impact on the
progress of a materials-related field. (Find
out more about the MRS Medal Award.)
The
MRS Medal will be presented at the Award Ceremony on Wednesday
evening at 6:30 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton
Boston Hotel.
| 2005
MRS Medal Award Recipient |
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“For
realizing that nanoclusters of layered compound
materials (e.g., MoS2, WS2)
can be made to fold into hollow cage structures,
in analogy to graphitic carbon. These structures,
known as 'inorganic
fullerenes,' constitute
a materials class with exciting new properties.”
Talk Presentation:
Wednesday, November 30
5:05 p.m.
Room 210, Hynes Convention Center
Topic:
Inorganic Nanotubes and Inorganic
Fullerene-Like Materials─From Concept to
Applications
(view abstract) |
Talk
Presentation Abstract
In
1992, we proposed that nanoparticles of layered compounds will
be unstable against folding, and close into fullerene-like
structures and nanotubes (IF). Initially this hypothesis
was realized in WS2, MoS2 and the respective diselenides.
Subsequently, nanotubes and fullerene-like structures were
prepared from numerous compounds with layered, and recently,
also non-layered, structure by various groups. Much progress
has been achieved in the synthesis of inorganic nanotubes
and fullerene-like nanoparticles of WS2 and MoS2, as well
as many other metal dichalcogenides over the last few years.
Synthetic methods for the production of multiwall WS2 nanotubes
by sulfidizing WO 3 nanoparticles have been described, and
further progress is under way. A fluidized-bed reactor for
the synthesis of up to 100 g/day of fullerene-like WS2 nanoparticles
has been established in our lab, and the scaling-up of the
synthesis to 100 kg/day and beyond is under way. The detailed
mechanisms for the synthesis of fullerene-like WS2 and MoS2 nanoparticles and nanotubes of these compounds have been
elucidated.
Substantial
progress has been accomplished in the use of such nanoparticles
for tribological applications, and lately as nanocomposites,
e.g., impact-resilient materials for self protection. Numerous
testing programs, undertaken jointly with different laboratories
and major industrial partners have clearly indicated the
usefulness of the fullerene-like WS2 (MoS2) as solid
lubricants in various products. These tests indicated that IF-MoS2 and IF-WS2 are heading for large-scale applications in the automotive,
machining, aerospace, electronics, medical, and numerous
other industries. This technology was licensed to the company
NanoMaterials, which is currently involved in many collaborative
development programs.
Novel applications of inorganic nanotubes and fullerene-like
nanoparticles in the fields of catalysis, microelectronics,
Li rechargeable batteries, medicine, and optoelectronics
will be presented.
Reshef
Tenne Biography
Reshef Tenne studied chemistry
and physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, earning
his PhD in 1976. He spent three years at the Battelle Institute
in Switzerland, first as a postdoctoral fellow, and later as
a member of the technical staff. In 1979, he joined the staff
of the Weizmann Institute, was granted tenure six years later,
and was promoted to full professor in 1995. Tenne has headed
the Weizmann Institute Department of Materials and Interfaces
since 2000. Appointed director of the Gerhard M.J. Schmidt
Minerva Center for Supramolecular Architecture (2001), he was
also appointed the first director of the new Helen and Martin
Kimmel Center for Nanoscale Science (2003), and the Drake Family
Chair of Nanotechnology (2004).
Tenne’s research focuses on the use of photovoltaic materials
in solar energy conversion and, more recently, on the synthesis,
characterization, and applications of novel nanomaterials.
In 1992, following the discovery of carbon fullerenes and nanotubes,
he proposed that nanoparticles of inorganic compounds with
layered structures, such as molybdenum disulfide, would adopt
a new, closed-cage crystalline shape, forming tiny balls or
nanotubes. Tenne’s observations of these compounds, which
came to be nicknamed “ inorganic fullerene-like materials,” (IF),
led to the birth of a new scientific discipline. It took him
and his colleagues four years to synthesize the first member
of this family of materials, tungsten disulfide, in large quantities.
As a result of these efforts, they were able to demonstrate
that such nanoscale “ball bearings” reduce friction
and wear considerably. These observations open up a large variety
of potential applications for these new nanomaterials. As these
novel materials display great potential for the automotive
and many other industries, a start-up company, NanoMaterials,
has beenformed to exploit this technology.
Scaling-up efforts for large-scale manufacturing of these nanomaterials
are well on their way. Nanotubes and fullerene-like nanoparticles
of many other inorganic compounds with layered and more recently
nonlayered compounds have been synthesized in recent years,
offering a plethora of applications.
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