Laureate of the ICS Tenne Family Prize
Plenary Lecture
Taming Nanotubes and Nanowires: Aligning, Crossing, Waving, Coiling and Twisting

Nanometer-scale materials can have unique properties due to their reduced dimensions, and serve as building blocks for the assembly of miniature functional systems. In macroscopic functional systems, wires, tubes and rods play critical roles of transporting energy, forces, matter and information. Which materials could play analogous roles at the smallest possible scale? In order to find answers to this question, we address two central issues: (1) How to control the properties of nanotubes and nanowires? (2) How to organize nanotubes and nanowires to enable their scalable integration into practical devices? Regarding the first question, rather than sticking to the characterization of their basic properties, we are interested in the relationship between different properties. For instance, how a mechanical deformation changes the electrical properties of nanotubes? Or, how an optical signal is translated into an electrical response? Regarding the second question, rather than ordering disordered ensembles, we investigate processes that lead to the spontaneous formation of ordered nanotubes and nanowires. We found that interactions with certain surfaces lead to the “guided growth” of nanotubes and nanowires with well-defined geometries, including perfectly aligned horizontal arrays, grids, serpentines and coils. These processes enable the self-integration of nanowires into functional systems (e.g. logic circuits, photodetectors) via guided growth. In relation to the first question, we investigate what happens when a nanotube is twisted. Carbon and inorganic nanotubes reveal different and intriguing torsional electromechanical phenomena, including quantum oscillations, stick-slip behavior and ultra-high stiffness. These phenomena serve as the basis for nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), including tiny torsional resonators with potential applications as nanogyroscopes. This talk will give an overview of our research during the last fifteen years to celebrate the award of the Tenne Prize in Nano Science at the 82^nd Israel Chemical Society Meeting.