Materials Science and Chemistry

Biography

Prof. Tenne received his PhD from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1976). After a post-doc in Battelle, Geneva (1976-1979) he joined the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot (Israel) where he became a full professor in 1995. The pioneering role of Prof. Tenne in 2D nanostructure research is well recognized. His work is often alongside people like Kroto, Smalley, Iijima, Geim, Novoselov and even Pauling, see for example Inorganics 2, 556 (2014); Eur. Phys. J. B 88, 177 (2015) and Chem. Comm. 50, 12360 (2014). He received numerous awards and recognitions including the MRS Medal (2005), Rothschild Prize (2015) and the Israel Chemical Society Gold Medal (2016). He is a member of the Israeli Academy of Sciences; Academia Europaea (2011) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Materials Research Society.

Research Interest

Following the discovery of carbon fullerenes and carbon nanotubes Prof. Tenne discovered inorganic nanotubes (INT) and fullerene-like nanoparticles (IF) of WS2 and MoS2 (Nature 1992, 1993; Science 1995). He showed that nanoparticles of layered compounds, like MoS2, suffer fundamental instability akin to graphite nanoparticles, transforming into seamless (closed-cage) nanostructures. Recently numerous new nanotubes, including those from ternary “misfit” compounds, like PbS-TaS2 and CaCoO2-CoO2, covering many elements of the periodic table, were reported by him. Following intensive work he showed that these materials are superior solid lubricants (Nature 1997), which are now used commercially as additives to various lubricants with sales of app. 5,000 tones this year (2016). Furthermore, adding up to 2% IF and more so INT of WS2 (MoS2) to various polymers, metal alloys and concrete led to substantial enhancement in their strength; fracture toughness and thermal stability. Large number of applications is foreseen for these nanocomposites, from aerospace, automotive industry medical technologies to tissue engineering.