 |
 |
||||||
[January 2006]
Tenne Named 2005 MRS Medallist for Inorganic Fullerenes
The Materials Research Society (MRS) gave Reshef Tenne of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel the MRS Medal for 2005. Tenne was named 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".
Tenne's recent research has focused on the synthesis, characterisation 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 tungsten disulphide and molybdenum disulphide, would adopt a new, closed-cage crystalline shape, forming tiny balls or nanotubes.
His 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 synthesise the first member of this family of materials, tungsten disulphide, in large quantities. His group has demonstrated that such nanoscale 'ball bearings' reduce friction and wear considerably.
www.mrs.org
ENDS