רקע כללי
Activities in the Department span a wide range of topics from soft, composite and hard materials to energy research, nanoscience, and biological systems. A UNIFYING THEME is the STUDY OF MATERIAL FUNCTIONALITY AND ITS RELATION TO FUNDAMENTAL PROPERTIES AT MULTIPLE SCALES. These properties may be mechanical, structural, electronic, magnetic and chemical. Some examples are:
How do shapes and sizes of nm-sized particles affect their spectral properties?
How can we tune the properties of solar cells by manipulating their material interfaces?
How does friction in knee and hip joints depend on polyelectrolytes that lubricate them? How can we design self-assembling, even self-replicating (bio)chemical systems?
THE RESEARCH IS BASED ON AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH, and indeed the scientists bring complementary experience in chemistry, physics, and biophysics, including theory and experiment.