Tag Archives: Materials Science and Engineering
Academic-Industrial Connections
An important step has been made in the collaboration between Intel and the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. The huge Intel Corporation – the American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer – has donated to… Read More
Learning from the Lotus Flower
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), fungal diseases are responsible for destroying a third of all food crops annually, causing immense economical loss and adding to global poverty. For example, powdery mildew is a serious fungal disease, which is easily noticeable by patches of white powder found on leaves and attacks a wide… Read More
Inspired by Nature: Changing Magnetism
Israeli researchers have developed a new technique for controlling the magnetic properties of materials. The method draws inspiration from mineral growth processes by organisms in nature. The research was led and initiated by Prof. Boaz Pokroy and doctoral student Arad Lang from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute… Read More
Sustainable, Rechargeable Silicon Batteries
A team of researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has developed a proof-of-concept for a novel rechargeable silicon (Si) battery, as well as its design and architecture that enables Si to be reversibly discharged and charged. Led by Professor Yair Ein-Eli of the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, the team proved via… Read More
How corals, starfish build their “skeleton”
How do marine organisms produce hard tissues from the materials available to them, and under the hostile conditions that prevail under the waves? That question is the basis of a study by an international group led by Professor Boaz Pokroy, doctoral student Nuphar Bianco-Stein (as part of her Ph.D. thesis), and researcher Dr. Alex Kartsman… Read More
Self-Repairing Electronics Are on the Way
From the Terminator to Spiderman’s suit, self-repairing robots and devices abound in sci-fi movies. In reality, though, wear and tear reduce the effectiveness of electronic devices until they need to be replaced. What if the cracked screen of your mobile phone could heal itself overnight? Or, if the solar panels providing energy to satellites could… Read More
We’re Losing Oxygen, and It’s Great!
What do ultrasound imaging of a fetus, cellular mobile communication, micro motors, and low-energy-consumption computer memories have in common? All of these technologies are based on ferroelectric materials, which are characterized by a strong correlation between their atomic structure and the electrical and mechanical properties. Technion – Israel Institute of Technology researchers have succeeded in… Read More
Defects in Gold as a Template for Nanowire Growth
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… Read More
No Batteries? No Problem
Energy & Environmental Science has reported a scientific breakthrough in the study of hematite, an important and promising material in the conversion of solar energy into hydrogen through photoelectrochemical water splitting. The research project was headed by Professor Avner Rothschild of the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of… Read More
Fast-Charging Batteries
Fast charging is considered to be a key requirement for widespread economic success of electric vehicles. Current lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) offer high energy density, but while they enable sufficient driving range, they take considerably longer to recharge than traditional vehicles. Multiple properties of the applied anode, cathode, and electrolyte materials influence the fast-charging ability of… Read More