- What are the
promising
and materials scientists are now engaged in in-demand research?
- Nanomaterials science is still very relevant.
It is even a little offensive that less attention is paid to this area.
Nanomaterials are amazing, fantastic properties.
Of course, it would be more correct to speak not about nanotechnology as such, but about applied research on nanomaterials.
After all, before talking about any technology, it is necessary to complete basic research.
The transition from basic and even applied research to technology is long, painful and difficult.
Therefore, in the case of the same Rusnano, we can say that a false start occurred during its creation.
The main boom in nanotechnology is just ahead of us - this is a matter of the near future.
All those ideas, all those perspectives that were ten or more years ago are still relevant.
But they have not yet been implemented in the "hardware" precisely because of the enormous complexity of the transition from fundamental research to technology.
- What nanomaterials are entering our life now?
- Currently, some individual elements of nanotechnology appear in our lives.
For example, amazing graphene, for the discovery of which in 2010 Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize.
Andrey Geim and Konstantin Novoselov announced the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics
AFP
© MAJA SUSLIN / SCANPIX SWEDEN
The 10-year EU-funded Graphene Flagship program is currently underway, dedicated to the applied research and applications of graphene.
€ 1 billion has been allocated for its implementation, which confirms the serious interest in this nanomaterial.
- Can you give any recent examples of applied research on graphene?
- Just a few months ago, a high-capacity graphene battery was announced, where graphene is used as an electrode, not graphite.
Many major electronics manufacturers are head to head in developing this technology.
- What are the important characteristics of graphene?
- This material is flexible, transparent, capable of conducting current.
This combination is extremely rare.
For example, our smartphone screens are based on Indium Tin Oxide (ITO).
It is a transparent, semi-conductive, but not flexible material, crystal.
So our phones, if we bend them, will break.
And we want flexible electronics.
A wide range of applications will immediately appear: flexible phones and batteries, wearable devices, smart clothes, and so on.
- Does your laboratory conduct research in this direction?
- Yes, this work concerns the thinnest diamond films.
This is a very promising object, from my point of view, which is again based on graphene.
Six years ago, we hypothesized that two layers of graphene could be joined together to form the thinnest diamond.
Why is this interesting?
Diamond is a record holder in a huge number of properties.
It is the most mechanically rigid, transparent material that has semiconducting properties.
In this case, diamond films will also be flexible.
That is, on the one hand, they will have the same wonderful properties of a crystal, a diamond.
On the other hand, they will acquire additional interesting properties.
Graphene would be an excellent basis for the formation of diamond films, but so far there are a number of obstacles to its use that we are trying to get around.
Smartphone with flexible screen
RIA News
© Alexey Kudenko
At the same time, I note that the first phones with flexible screens have already appeared in the world, and this is also the result of the development of nanotechnology.
But, as far as I know, they are not based on graphene, but on the use of the finest silver wires or conductive polymers.
- That is, developers have a lot of serious technological problems when creating
nanomaterials?
So is the game worth the candle?
- Undoubtedly.
It is necessary to stock up on patience and resources not even for ten, but for 20-30 years and actively work in this area.
This is not a short jump, but a long distance, but the result will be worth it.
And then we will really get new technologies.
In any case, we have nowhere to go.
Modern technologies for the production of semiconductor elements that make up the processors already make it possible to realize dimensions of several nanometers, that is, several elementary cells of the crystal, and further reduction will soon be simply impossible.
And this means that it is necessary to move to new technologies, to new materials.
This is the only way out.
- What devices, materials, technologies do you think will enter our life in the near future?
- New technologies for storing and recording information based on nanomaterials.
Random access memory based on the magnetoresistive effect, which is dealt with by the section of spintronics (the section of quantum electronics that studies spin current transfer, i.e. information and energy are transferred not by the usual electric current, but by the spin current. -
RT
).
Now this technology makes it possible to obtain materials with a relatively low memory capacity, but its development will significantly, by orders of magnitude, improve the characteristics of storage devices in comparison with the devices that we use now: flash cards, hard drives, SSDs and others.
The same graphene or other two-dimensional materials can be used to create special “sandwiches” in which special effects are observed.
I think that in the coming decade, these technologies will make some progress and will gradually begin to enter everyday life.
In our laboratory, active research in the field of spintronics is now underway.
With colleagues from Japan, we were able to study new compounds based on graphene and Heusler alloy (a chemical compound of three metals with a special formula -
RT
).
We have shown for the first time in the world that such a compound is possible, and also proved its promising properties.
In the future, this structure and similar ones can become the basis for new generation memory cells.
At the same time, work is being carried out on two fronts at once: advanced experimental research and theoretical modeling.
- Let's digress a little from electronics and talk about medicine
and medical diagnostics.
What developments and materials are there now?
- Materials science plays an important role in medical diagnostics.
Nanoparticles are used, for example, as drug delivery systems, where drugs are encapsulated in nanoparticles to deliver to the desired area of the human body.
In the development of implants, the biocompatibility and bioactivity of materials in medicine are of particular importance.
Such materials can not only perform a mechanical function and prevent contamination in the event of surface modification by antibiotics, but also become part of organs that need replacement.
Production of membrane filters for blood plasma based on nanotechnology in the research and production complex "Alpha"
RIA News
© Ilya Pitalev
- In what area of materials science can our country seriously compete with the scientific powers?
- These are, of course, composite materials.
I will explain with the simplest example.
Relatively speaking, we have metal, the same aluminum.
Pure aluminum is also good, primarily due to its weight - it is very light, but not strong, and we want to strengthen it.
For this, other elements are added to aluminum in industry, for example, iron, which improves its strength, but also increases its weight.
However, here again nanomaterials come to our rescue, with the help of which light and durable nanocomposites are obtained.
There is a good example of the successful production of nanomaterials in our country - there is a company in Novosibirsk that synthesizes carbon nanotubes on an industrial scale.
It was shown that even a small amount of them significantly improves the properties of composites - thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, mechanical characteristics.
Single-wall carbon nanotubes in the laboratory of the Center for Prototyping New Materials
RIA News
© Alexander Kryazhev
- The science of polymers is 100 years old, and all this time new materials have been created on their basis.
We began to live
surrounded by various polymer compounds,
they appeared
in various fields and brought with them problems as well.
Do new technologies have similar revolutionary potential?
- Definitely.
Our future is controlled synthesis of materials.
This is control over the structure, over the property of materials at the atomic level.
These are the challenges facing humanity for the coming years.
A new technological order, to which we will definitely go.
Another important thing that really comes into our life right now is neural networks.
Neural networks and machine learning are used in many fields of science.
The neural network allows us to analyze big data and obtain new information.
- Are artificial intelligence technologies affecting materials development?
- In the most direct way.
A neural network as a robot scientist allows planning experiments, planning the conditions for the synthesis of new materials, based on the available data.
Data analysis allows predicting possible results - new structures, new materials with a new property.
And all this - without attracting huge computing power.
We can say that the neural network really makes the computer think.
And in this respect, it becomes, in a sense, a competitor to man.
An employee of the Traffic Management Center during the launch of a neural network to record traffic violations
RIA News
© Ilya Pitalev
-
Can there be
risks and problems with the development of such technology?
- Personally, I believe that these risks exist and should not be underestimated.
Previously, only man had a monopoly on creativity.
Neural networks, of course, do not yet create like people, but they have just begun to develop.
The neural network already solves basic tasks better.
For example, she was able to defeat a person in various intellectual games - go, chess.
This may seem like an insignificant result now, but the speed of development of neural networks is really amazing.
In the future, most likely, most of the actions performed by a person today will be carried out by neural networks, but only a person should always make key decisions.
This is especially important.