Author: shelleys

The use of robots in construction and architectural manufacturing is a vision steadily becoming a reality and is perceived as a key trend in the next revolution in the construction industry. For years, complex architectural projects have been planned by computer. On the ground, however, these projects continue to be executed using construction methods that have remained virtually unchanged for decades.

In recent years, thanks to continuous development, robotic instrumentation has begun to close the gap between the level of planning sophistication and practical execution on-site. Consequently, anyone who has seen videos of robotic manufacturing processes in architectural projects will find it hard not to be swept up in the tide of enthusiasm. The good ones show robotic arms in motion, lifting building parts that interlock with ease. The pace of production is accompanied by accurate cutting and precise detail.

Despite the impressive tempo of the robots and the infinite possibilities inherent in these production processes, human intervention is usually necessary behind the scenes from the production aspect as well as in calculating and planning the various deliverables. This is especially true when architectural planning is based on complex spatial systems such as thin, doubly-curved surfaces, also known as “shells.”

A research group from the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is working on narrowing the gap between the promise and reality. The researchers, Professor Mirela Ben Chen, Dr. Kacper Pluta, and Michal Edelstein, together with their colleague, Professor Amir Vaxman of Utrecht University, responded to a request from an architect and developed an algorithm that finds automated solutions that meet robotic manufacturing needs for complex surfaces. The researchers created a computational framework that takes as input complex and diverse doubly curved surfaces and computes its segmentation into planar panels. The researchers have shown that the planar segments can be assembled from cardboard, a first step towards robotically manufactured shells made from timber.

“It’s important to recognize that industrial robotic manufacturing is not a technological whim,” Prof. Ben Chen explained. “It has numerous advantages in different aspects of sustainability such as material savings, reducing construction time and mitigating the environmental impacts of the construction process. The algorithm we developed can take complex surfaces and break them down into small segments, hexagons, in a way that increases the surface’s mechanical advantages. Further development of the computational tool will enable an optimal implementable solution to be devised.”

“In order for the computational system to be applicative in the ‘real world’ as well, collaboration with architects is necessary,” Prof. Ben Chen continued. “Ultimately, we hope that our research will lead to the development of a system that can compute and manufacture building segments through automation, so that they can be assembled on-site without detracting from or compromising on architectural or structural complexity.”

To read the researchers’ paper in ACM Transactions on Graphics, click here

The prestigious 2021 Landau Award in Bioinformatics has been awarded to Prof. Roy Kishony of the Faculty of Biology and the Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The prize is awarded annually by the Mifal HaPais Council for the Culture and Arts to outstanding artists and scientists who made significant impact in key areas.

The award committee noted that “Prof. Roy Kishony is one of the most brilliant and respected scientists working in Israel. His research combines bioinformatics, mathematical models, machine learning, and experimental work in a creative and innovative way to study basic questions in areas of crucial importance to human health.”

His work focuses on bacterial resistance to antibiotics and ways to prevent it. Prof. Kishony’s many contributions to science include “describing the interactions between antibiotics and their impact on the development of bacterial resistance, understanding how, through antibiotic monitoring, the development of resistance can be delayed or prevented, and even discovering why antibiotic resistance is uncommon in bacteria growing in natural ecosystems,” the committee noted.

In recent years, Prof. Kishony has channeled his scientific insights into advancing health systems. He developed a computational learning system for predicting the most appropriate drug based on the patient’s personal medical record. Most recently, Prof. Kishony “greatly contributed to the understanding and improvement of the testing and vaccination for COVID-19,” the committee noted. “Prof. Kishony is an original and creative world-renowned scientist in the field of systems and computational biology.”

In conclusion, the committee wrote: “His multidisciplinary research takes advantage of bioinformatics as a tool for a better understanding of biological and medical systems.”

 

The Harvey Prize in the Science and Technology category will be awarded to Professor James R. Rice of Harvard University this year. Prof. Rice was chosen for the Technion’s most prestigious award for his fundamental and long-standing contributions to the fields of mechanics of materials and geophysics, particularly for the development of the J-integral and for his leadership, which has broadened the understanding of friction and earthquakes.

Prof. Rice was born on December 3, 1940, in Frederick, Md. He studied at a Catholic school that recruited science and math teachers from the nearby army base. These teachers inspired his love of engineering and science.

In 1958 Prof. Rice began studying at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn., and within just six years he completed three consecutive degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. He went on for a postdoc at Brown University, where he began working in 1964. In 1981, he accepted a position at Harvard University, where he serves as the Mallinckrodt Professor of Engineering Sciences and Geophysics.

Prof. Rice has won numerous awards, including the Timoshenko Medal and the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Medal, and was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society of London, as well as to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the U.S. National Academy of Science. In honor of his contributions to the engineering sciences, the Society of Engineering Science established the James R. Rice Medal in 2015. He received an honorary doctorate from the Technion in 2005.

Prof. Rice is an expert in solid and fluid mechanics, i.e. stress analysis, deformation, fracture and flow – applied to seismology, tectonophysics and surface geological processes. He focuses on theoretical mechanics in earth and environmental science, including earthquake source processes (research carried out together with his wife, Dr. Renata Dmowska), fault and crack dynamics, tsunami and landslides. One of his greatest achievements, which is also noted by the Harvey Prize Council, is the J-integral, which has become a standard in fracture mechanics, to analyze the crack-tip fields and the crack’s propensity to propagate (fracture). He named this particular integral the “J-integral”, with the uppercase letter “J” coinciding with his nickname “Big Jim,” respectfully used by his students – but the “J” also being a standard notation for energy fluxes in solids, in studies he pursued in the same area with senior Brown Univ. colleagues such as Daniel C. Drucker, Joseph Kestin and also with Rodney Hill at Cambridge Univ., UK.

The $75,000 Harvey Prize, established in 1971 by Leo Harvey (1887-1973), is awarded by the Technion each year for outstanding achievements in science and technology, human health, and significant contributions to mankind. Over the years the Harvey Prize has become a predictor of the Nobel Prize, with more than 30% of Harvey laureates ultimately receiving the Nobel. Three of them – Prof. Emmanuelle Charpentier, Prof. Jennifer Doudna, and Prof. Reinhard Genzel – won the Nobel Prize in 2020.

The European Union’s EIT Food organization awarded the “Innovation Impact Award” to a project led by Prof. Yoav D. Livney of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, in collaboration with Amai Proteins and the global Danone and PepsiCo companies.

The EIT Food Innovation Impact Award was given to them for the development of a healthy sugar substitute based on the smart enhancement of sweet proteins found in tropical fruits. The name of the project is “Sugar-Out, Prote-In, Application of Microencapsulated Sweet Proteins as Sugar Substitutes.”

Amai Protein produces designer proteins using computational protein design and production through precise fermentation. Since these proteins are between 4,000 and 11,000 times sweeter than sugar, they can be used in minute amounts hence would be more affordable than sugar per sweetness unit. Furthermore, they have glycemic value of 0 and do not adversely affect the population of intestinal bacteria (the microbiome).

The winning technology is based on adding natural food ingredient agents – termed MicroPatching agents – or other food ingredients to produce a protein flavor as similar as possible to that of sugar. This should result in a significant reduction of sugar consumption, which is harmful not only to human health – most obviously in obesity and the development of metabolic syndrome – but also to the environment, and is unsustainable. The new technology uses more environmentally friendly production processes than the traditional sugar industry.

The researchers tackled several challenges including improving the taste and eliminating an aftertaste; protein stability; competitive pricing and adverse health effects. According to Prof. Livney, “winning the Impact Award will help us advance towards commercialization of the technology and consequently reduce sugar consumption in Israel and around the world.”

According to Dr. Ilan Samish, founder and CEO of Amai Protein, “the multidisciplinary R&D project led by the Technion allows us to combine groundbreaking technologies with applied R&D from leading international beverage and food companies for the purpose of introducing a product that consumers really long for.”

Our Faculty of Biology marks 50 years of academic and research excellence. Founded in the fall of 1971, the faculty started out as the Horace W. Goldsmith Institute of General and Industrial Microbiology. Now, most of its labs are housed in the the Emerson Life Sciences Building, which was completed in 2011.

Over the years, the faculty has grown from six professors to 30 senior faculty members and eight active Emeritus faculty members, who work at the forefront of modern biology. The faculty’s location in the heart of the Technion campus promotes interdisciplinary research that combines life sciences, medicine, exact sciences and engineering, and spans diverse topics from biochemistry to biophysics.

The faculty’s vision is to continue to lead interdisciplinary research at the Technion and to position itself among the best biology faculties in Israel and around the world.

To read more about the jubilee, click here. 

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Assistant Professor Assaf Zinger and Dr. Caroline Cvetkovic from the Center for Neuroregeneration at the Houston Methodist Research Institute have created a novel means of delivering medicine to neurons in a targeted manner. They developed biomimetic nano-vesicles, or nature-mimicking, nanometer-scale “vehicles,” capable of specifically targeting neurons (i.e., nerve) cells. This tool paves the way for the treatment of multiple neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injuries.

Their findings were recently published in Advanced Science.

Drug delivery is a major challenge that must be overcome in drug development, and it is one of the focus areas of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Technion. It is not enough that a substance can lead to the desired therapeutic effect in a specific cell. This therapeutic substance must also reach these cells without being changed or destroyed en route, and it must not end up in other organs if it might cause harm there.

In explaining what led him to this study, Dr. Zinger said, “One Saturday, my family and I were dining with friends. Their little girl has a neurodegenerative disorder; she can’t speak and has a motor disorder. I wanted to help her.”

Dr. Zinger was already working on various types of biomimetic nano-vesicles. These nano-vesicles are similar in their basic structure to human cells but much smaller – one millionth of a hair’s width in diameter. They can carry within them cargo that needs to be delivered to the cells – medication, mRNA, etc.

The targeting of these nano-vesicles is achieved by incorporating specific cell membrane-derived proteins on their surface, thus letting them be recognized and taken in by the correct cells. These specific proteins that cover the surface of these nano-vesicles are naturally used by the body to identify its cells and this is what biomimicry is all about. In essence, the nano vesicles (or taxis) masquerade as neurons, resulting in their being recognized and welcomed by other neurons, thereby making it possible for them to deliver their therapeutic cargo.

Potentially revolutionizing the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders and traumatic brain injuries

These findings have broad implications. More than one neurodegenerative disorder might be treated if the correct medicine or genetic cargo (e.g., mRNA, SiRNA, miRNA) could be delivered to the brain. But these are not the only possible applications.

“With this, we can also potentially revolutionize the treatment of traumatic brain injuries,” Prof. Zinger explained. “In the case of a car accident and or a sports injury, as examples, the brain is first damaged by the impact, as it is struck against the skull. As a result, multiple brain cells are damaged. This starts a process of inflammation. If we could immediately deliver anti-inflammatory drugs to the brain, we could reduce the inflammatory processes, and hopefully prevent fatalities and long-term disabilities.”

The lion’s share of this study was conducted by Dr. Zinger at the Houston Methodist Research Institute and Houston Methodist Hospital as part of his postdoctoral fellowship. Dr. Zinger recently opened a multidisciplinary laboratory at the Technion, in the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering. His lab aims to create advanced bioinspired technologies and translational therapeutics through a highly multidisciplinary approach. Specifically, Dr. Zinger’s group will integrate in vitro and in vivo models with imaging, molecular biology, and chemical techniques to design novel nano-based technologies that will achieve organ- and cell-specific targeting for improved therapeutic outcomes in different brain and neural diseases, injuries, and various cancers.

To read the full article, click here.

Israel is among the global leaders in research and innovation of alternative proteins – an immensely important issue for our planet – as we face the challenge to feed 10 billion people by 2050. This was one of the messages at the World Food Day conference, entitled “Alternative Ingredients and Technologies for a Sustainable Future,” hosted by the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology’s Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering earlier this month.

Greenhouse gases, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and overuse of antibiotics are all connected to our growing demand for meat. The challenge is real and requires global solutions.

Home to the only food engineering faculty in Israel

The conference was held in collaboration with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, and focused on solutions to alternative proteins, alternative fats, and opportunities and solutions to meet the demands of a more environmentally and ecologically aware population, and our changing dietary habits. Lecture topics were diverse and showcased the best of the Technion and Cornell, as well as commercial startups and investment companies. The conference was organized by Dr. Maya Davidovich-Pinhas and Prof. Avi Shpigelman of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering.

Professor Marcelle Machluf, Dean of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, opened the conference by highlighting the Technion’s pioneering work in FoodTech – home to the only Food Engineering Faculty in Israel. Prof. Machluf also presented the Technion’s new Carasso FoodTech Innovation Center, which is supported by the Carasso Family and Carasso Motors. The center will promote cutting-edge food technologies, teaching, and R&D in the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering.

 

“20kg of feed to get 1kg of protein”

Dr. Maya Davidovich-Pinhas of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering spoke about the search for alternatives to animal fats – no less important in creating the perfect meatless burger; and Technion Associate Professor Uri Lesmes of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering talked about the potential of insects as an alternative protein source, and the need to develop appropriate technologies.

“A cow needs to be fed with 20kg of feed for us to be able to get 1kg of cow protein,” Prof. Lesmes said at the conference. “Crickets only need 1.7 kg of feed to give us 1kg of cricket protein.”

Other subjects included how to harness synthetic biology to produce honey without bees, by Technion Professor Roee Amit of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering; and food engineering and cooking based on seaweed by Professor Alex Golberg of Tel Aviv University.

A quarter of global investments in cultivated meat – in Israel

Conference speaker Nir Goldstein, Managing Director of the Good Food Institute’s Israel branch, explained the changing trends in consumer markets, saying, “Israel has developed itself … as a global hub for research and innovation for solutions in this field. We are No. 2 in the world in the number of fermentation and cultivated meat companies. 25% of the global investment in cultivated meat in 2021 was in Israel. It’s a multidisciplinary field. It’s not only food engineering, bioengineering and tissue technology. It could be biochemistry, civil engineering and everything in between.”

Three Unilever employees who graduated from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering — Ran Harel, Marina Gambrin, Idan Curis — presented some of their company’s solutions for a more sustainable world. Much of it focused on sustainable packaging and a wide range of vegan products as part of their talk “Shaping the Future of Food.”

Three startups supported by EIT FAN (the European Food Accelerator Network), showcased their pioneering work – from creating bio-functional ingredients mimicking human breast milk (MAOLAC), to controlling naturally-occurring sugar in beverages such as milk (Lamu Ltd., a Technion Drive Accelerator startup), and using technologies for food shelf-life extension (Biotipac).

The conclusion of the event was a look at partners and players in business and science from the United States – from investors such as Stu Strumwasser, M.D., of Green Circle Capital Partners, as well as the Cornell-Technion NY-Israel FoodTech bridge program being developed to connect startups and scientists in both countries.

Cornell Professor Carmen Moraru and Dr. Bruno Xavier both spoke about their respective work in the role of non-thermal processing technologies in solving sustainability challenges in the food world, and AgriTech as a global resource for entrepreneurship in food and agriculture.

Some cutting-edge US startups also presented their innovations: Akorn makes an edible food coating for longer lasting produce; Paragon Pure produces fat alternatives; and The Better Meat Co. makes meat substitutes.

Plenty of food for thought.

Story by Deborah Dwek

A novel approach to treating type 2 diabetes is being developed at the Technion, using an autograft of muscle cells engineered to take in sugar at increased rates.

The disease, caused by insulin resistance and reduction of cells’ ability to absorb sugar, is characterized by increased blood sugar levels. Its long-term complications include heart disease, strokes, damage to the retina that can result in blindness, kidney failure, and poor blood flow in the limbs that may lead to amputations. It is currently treated by a combination of lifestyle changes, medication, and insulin injections, but ultimately is associated with a 10-year reduction in life expectancy.

Led by Professor Shulamit Levenberg, Ph.D. student Rita Beckerman from the Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering Laboratory in the Technion’s Faculty of Biomedical Engineering presents a novel treatment approach, using an autograft of muscle cells engineered to take in sugar at increased rates. Mice treated in this manner displayed normal blood sugar levels for months after a single procedure. The group’s findings were recently published in Science Advances.

Muscle cells are among the main targets of insulin, and they are supposed to absorb sugar from the blood. In their study, Prof. Levenberg’s group isolated muscle cells from mice and engineered these cells to present more insulin-activated sugar transporters (GLUT4). These cells were then grown to form an engineered muscle tissue, and finally transported back into the abdomen of diabetic mice. The engineered cells not only proceeded to absorb sugar correctly, improving blood sugar levels, but also induced improved absorption in the mice’s other muscle cells, by means of signals sent between them. After this one treatment, the mice remained cured of diabetes for four months – the entire period they remained under observation. Their blood sugar levels remained lower, and they had reduced levels of fatty liver normally displayed in type 2 diabetes.

“By taking cells from the patient and treating them, we eliminate the risk of rejection,” Prof. Levenberg explained. These cells can easily integrate back into being part of the body and respond to the body’s signaling activity.

Currently, around 34 million Americans, just over 1 in 10, suffer from diabetes, 90% of them from type 2 diabetes. An effective treatment – and one that is a one-time treatment rather than daily medication – could significantly improve both quality of life and life expectancy of those who have diabetes. The same method could also be used to treat various enzyme deficiency disorders.

This work was funded by Rina and Avner Schneur as part of the Rina and Avner Schneur Center for Diabetes Research. Rita Beckerman is an Ariane de Rothschild Women Doctoral Program scholar.

Click here for the paper in Science Advances.

“We shape our buildings; therefore, they shape us,” Winston Churchill once said.

The next generation of Israel’s architects is already starting to shape our country, and as the first day of the 2021-2022 academic year approaches, it’s time to look at the accomplishments of our architecture students.

Here are some of the highlights from last year’s project fair, presenting the work of students from the various studios of the Technion’s Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. Some of the following projects will be nominated for the Azrieli Award, the most prestigious award for architecture students in Israel:

Experiential Routine

How much of our commute do we spend in corridors, places “in between?” Between tube stations, between the train and the bus, in the corridors of an office building? Amit Sadik from the Technology Studio decided to focus on those everyday places, and turned the daily commute into an experience that could evoke feelings of novelty, curiosity and pleasure. To achieve this, using a station of the planned light rail in Tel Aviv as a test case, Amit incorporated plants and daylight into the space, and opened multiple optional pathways, inviting strolling and discovery.

Productive Bay

We have tucked the industrial areas of our cities out of sight, and out of mind. The pollution they produce is something we’d rather not think about. Dina Gorodnitski from the Space, Consciousness and Sustainability Studio, re-examined the industrial area of Haifa Bay, the city’s “black hole”, and reimagined it as a sustainable mixed-use area. Dina proposed integrated recycling centers, promenades overlooking the port, a symbiotic environment of urban life and sustainable industrial production.

Informalization

Asma Abu-Raya from the Urban Studio focused on the Bedouin villages in Israel’s desert The Negev. She examined the traditional lifestyle of the Bedouin community and the organic, “informal” development of the villages, compared to the “formal” development, and proposed ways in which city planning could take into consideration the local culture, involve residents in the planning, allow space for spontaneous growth to meet the changing needs, and encourage people to take responsibility for their environment as a community.

Local knowledge as the basis of autonomy 

Layan Salameh’s project outlines a discontinuous urban infrastructure that will enable autonomy over water, as a resource of life, and will revive the textile industry in the Old City of Jerusalem (East Jerusalem), in order to ensure future economic independence of the residents. The planning strategy is based on local knowledge; industrial spaces serve the public through planning tools that enable collective learning of the production process.

A few years ago, the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning changed its curriculum from a four-year to a six-year program. Students now leave the Technion with a master’s degree, having attained greater maturity and a broader understanding of the field. In 2021, the first class of students graduated under the new program. To learn more about the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning – the oldest academic institute in Israel for the study of architecture – visit https://architecture.technion.ac.il/.

 

Story by Tatyana Haykin

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Technion researchers have just published findings in ‘Science Advances’ that support the efficacy of the technology they had developed: Treatment of breast cancer by anesthesia of the nervous system around the tumor. The treatment not only inhibited tumor growth but also prevented metastasis to other organs.

Researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have developed an innovative treatment for breast cancer, based on analgesic nanoparticles that target the nervous system. The study, published in Science Advances, was led by Professor Avi Schroeder and Ph.D. student Maya Kaduri of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, and despite breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment, about one thousand women in Israel die of the disease per year. Around 15% of them are under the age of 50. Worldwide, some 685,000 women die each year from breast cancer.

Prof. Schroeder has years of experience in developing innovative cancer treatments, including ones for breast cancer and specifically triple-negative breast cancer – an aggressive cancer characterized by rapid cell division with a higher risk of metastasis. Technologies developed in his lab include novel methods for encapsulating drug molecules in nanoparticles that transport the drug to the tumor and release it inside, without damaging healthy tissue.

The researchers found that cancer cells have a reciprocal relationship with the nerve cells around them: the cancer cells stimulate infiltration of nerve cells into the tumor, and this infiltration stimulates cancer cell proliferation, growth, and migration. In other words, the cancer cells recruit the nerve cells for their purposes.

Based on these findings, the researchers developed a treatment that targets the tumor through the nerve cells. This treatment is based on injecting nanoparticles containing anesthetic into the bloodstream. The nanoparticles travel through the bloodstream toward the tumor, accumulate around the nerve cells in the cancerous tissue, and paralyze the local nerves and communication between the nerve cells and the cancer cells. The result: significant inhibition of tumor development and of metastasis to the lungs, brain, and bone marrow.

The nanoparticles simulate the cell membrane and are coated with special polymers that disguise them from the immune system and enable a long circulation time in the bloodstream. Each such particle, which is around 100 nm in diameter, contains the anesthetic.

According to Maya Kaduri: “We know how to create the exact size of particles needed, and that is critical because it’s the key to penetrating the tumor. Tumors stimulate increased formation of new blood vessels around them, so that they receive oxygen and nutrients, but the structure of these blood vessels is damaged and contains nano-sized holes that enable penetration of nanoparticles. The cancerous tissue is characterized by poor lymphatic drainage, which further increases accumulation of the particles in the tissue.

Therefore, the anesthetizing particles we developed move through the bloodstream without penetrating healthy tissue. Only when they reach the damaged blood vessels of the tumor do they leak out, accumulate around the nerve cells of the cancerous tissue, and disconnect them from the cancer cells. The fact that this is a very focused and precise treatment enables us to insert significant amounts of anesthetic into the body because there is no fear that it will harm healthy and vital areas of the nervous system.”

In experiments on cancer cell cultures and in treatment of mice, the new technology inhibited not only tumor development but also metastasis. The researchers estimate these findings may be relevant for treatment of breast cancer in humans.

The research is supported by the Rappaport Technion Integrated Cancer Center (RTICC) as part of the Steven & Beverly Rubenstein Charitable Foundation Fellowship Fund for Cancer Research, and by Teva, as part of its National Forum for BioInnovators. The research was conducted in cooperation with the Faculty of Medicine at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Institute of Pathology at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.

Prof. Avi Schroeder is head of the Louis Family Laboratory for Targeted Drug Delivery & Personalized Medicine Technologies at the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering. Maya Kaduri, who has a B.Sc. from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering at the Technion, began researching under the guidance of Prof. Avi Schroeder during her bachelor’s degree, and this year she is expected to complete her Ph.D. (direct track).

For the article in Science Advances click here.

For a video demonstrating the study:

[su_youtube url=”https://youtu.be/fGDcIuqKkYU” width=”700″ height=”200″]

Technion researchers have presented an innovative method for the formation of nanowires. In it, the nanowires form within line defects that exist in metals. Such defects are known as dislocations. This is the first time that dislocation lines in a material of one kind serve as a template for the growth of a different inorganic material in the form of nanowires. The study, which was published in PNAS, was led by Professor Boaz Pokroy and Ph.D. student Lotan Portal of the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute.

Dislocations are a significant phenomenon in materials science since they affect the material’s properties on both the macro- and microscales. For example, a high dislocation density increases a metal’s strength and hardness. The dislocation edges on metal surfaces and the atoms in their proximity tend to be more chemically activated compared to other atoms in the material and tend to facilitate various chemical reactions, such as corrosion and catalysis.

The researchers in Prof. Pokroy’s group created nanowires of gold-cyanide complex from classic Au-Ag alloy. In professional terminology, they synthesized inorganic gold(I)-cyanide (AuCN) systems in the shape of nanowires, using an autocatalytic reaction (i.e. through the acceleration of a reaction by one of its reactants). Gold-cyanide complex is used in numerous fields including ammonia gas detection (NH₃ sensors), catalysis (acceleration) of water-splitting reactions, and others.

In the process developed by the researchers, nanowires crystallize at the dislocation ends on the surface of the original gold-silver (Au-Ag) alloy, and the final structure obtained is classic nanoporous (sponge-like) gold, with a layer of nanowires emerging from it. Formation of the nanowires occurs during the classic selective dealloying process that separates the silver from the system and forms the nanoporous gold and is achieved only when the dislocation density exceeds a critical value, as presented in the kinetic model developed and demonstrated in the article.

The model provides a possible route for growing one-dimensional inorganic complexes while controlling the growth direction, shape, and morphology of a crystal according to the original alloy’s slip system. As mentioned, this scientific and technological achievement has numerous potential applications.

The research was sponsored by a European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept Grant (“np-Gold” project) as part of the Horizon 2020 Program.

For the article in PNAS click here