Guangdong-Technion Leadership in Science and Technology Scientific Lecture by Prof. Ron Naaman-Weizmann Institute of Science

Title

Chiral Material and the Electrons’ Spin- A Miraculous Match 手性材料和电子自旋的神奇匹配

Speaker

Ron Naaman

Professor Emeritus of The Weizmann Institute of Science
Fellow of the American Physical Society
Fellow of the Royal Chemical Society
Member of Academia Europaea

Host

Prof. Zuoti Xie (GTIIT MSE)

Date & Time

Mar. 15 2022, Tuesday, 19:00pm-20:00pm

Venue

E310 (Educational Building 3rd floor)

Language

English(Simultaneous interpretation will be available)

How to join:

Scan the QR code or click here to join the lecture

Free snacks will be provided at 18:40 pm

Abstract

The ‘conventional wisdom’ about chirality in biomolecules is that it serves as a structural motif to place chemical functionalities in defined positions and orientations that enable biologically relevant functions. While the electron spin is accepted as important in defining structure of atoms and molecules, spin based properties, applications, and devices are commonly related to materials that have unpaired electrons (paramagnetic). However, we found that chiral molecules, crystals, and films act as spin filters for photoelectrons transmission, in electron transfer, and in electron transport.

The effect, termed Chiral Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS),(1)  was found, among others, in bio-molecules and in bio-systems as well as in chiral oxides and in chiral perovskites. Its existence may explain the role of chirality in living organisms and allows new applications for chiral molecules and materials like in  spintronics devices, (2)   in controlling magnetization,(3)  and on electron transfer and conduction. It also enables the introduction of new type of catalysts, especially for oxygen related processes. We also found that charge polarization in chiral molecules is accompanied by spin polarization. This finding shed new light on spin dependent interaction between chiral molecules and between them and magnetic surfaces.(4)

Further reading

1. R. Naaman, Y.  Paltiel, D,H, Waldeck, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 11 (2020) 3660.
2. K. Michaeli, V. Varade, R. Naaman, D. A Waldeck, J. of Physics: Condensed Matter. 29(2017) 103002.

3. E. Z. B. Smolinsky et al.   J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 10 (2019)  1139.
4. K. Banerjee-Ghosh, et al., Science 360 (2018) 1331.

Bio

Ron Naaman earned his BSc in 1973 from Ben-Gurion University and his PhD in 1978 from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University in California, and spent a year in the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University. In 1981, he joined the Weizmann Institute and in 1991 he became a Full Professor. He was the recipient of the Kolthof Award from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technolog (2014), was honored by a special issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry (2013). He received the Erasmus Mundus research scholarship at the Technical University in Dresden. and was the recipient of the Israel Vacuum Society Research Excellence Prize in 2011. In 2007, he was the Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry Lecturer of the Chemical Society of Japan. In 2018 he got the Israel Chemical Society prize for excellent research and in 2020 he got the Humboldt-Meitner Prize. Ron is a fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the Royal Chemical Society,  and a member of Academia Europaea.