Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Enantioselective screw-dislocation-mediated growth of chiral nanocrystals

Objective

In many scientific disciplines structural symmetry considerations are key. Specifically, mechanisms by which symmetry translates from atomic and molecular building blocks to crystal structures and shapes attract a great deal of attention. A fascinating aspect of this is related to chirality. Louis Pasteurs monumental work, reported in 1848, on formation of chiral shapes in crystals made from chiral molecules, led to an intuition that chiral building blocks naturally lead to chiral shapes in crystals. Yet, after countless observations ever since of crystals with chiral shapes, mechanisms of their formation are understood to be often more complex and elusive than first imagined. In work proposed here, nanocrystals will serve as convenient model systems for studies of the interplay between crystallization and chiral shape formation. They are beneficial for this purpose as they can mimic embryonic stages of crystal growth, exhibiting structural details that can be retrieved at remarkable resolution, that are often hidden in macroscopic crystals. Specifically, I will focus on a universal mechanism by which crystals grow at low concentrations of building blocks, assisted by a common type of imperfections, namely, screw dislocations. I will tackle key unresolved questions on the interplay between chirality, screw dislocations and crystallization. First, how does screw-dislocation-mediated growth proceed in the presence of chiral additives that can bind to growing crystals, and how do these dislocations even come to be? Second, how general is this mechanism, and how often was it overlooked throughout history? The results obtained in this work, on the one hand, will lead to a general design principle to control nano-scale chirality in many inorganic materials, beneficial for novel applications. On the other hand, they have the potential to elucidate a missing piece of crystal growth theory and lead to a paradigm shift in our understanding of shape chirality in crystals.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG

See all projects funded under this call

Host institution

BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 500 000,00
Address
BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
52900 Ramat Gan
Israel

See on map

Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 500 000,00

Beneficiaries (1)

My booklet 0 0