Genuis of Nano - Dr. Vladimir Shur's Interview on New Materials

09:57, October 22, 2020

The famous researcher told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta journal how R&D change the perception of traditional materials

The boom in nanotechnology, which began in Russia in 2007, has now been replaced by the pursuit of IT specialists and "smart" robots. Not all scientists think such a turn of fashion is justified. Vladimir Shur, director of the Ural Center for Shared Use "Modern Nanotechnologies" of the Ural Federal University, told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta journal correspondent what developments of nanotechnologists - specialists dealing with nanoobjects less than a hundred nanometers in size - we are using now and what will be in demand in the future.

- Once you said that electronic devices are the result of development, including nanotechnology. When did nano come into our lives?

- The ability to penetrate the nanoworld and work with individual atoms at the end of 1959 was discussed by Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, and the first person who managed to draw attention to nanotechnology was the American scientist Eric Drexler: in 1986, in his book, he considered all possible aspects of their application. The global era of nanotechnology began in 2000. I will note: this is not a fashionable direction, but a fundamental stage in the development of science.

- Ten years ago, nanotechnology was very popular. Why are they less spoken about now?

- Most people still have no idea what nanotechnology is, and have no idea that advances in various fields of science, including genetics and medicine, are largely due to the use of electron and scanning probe microscopes. Nanotechnology was perceived as an instant breakthrough, revolutionary results. Today, along with gadgets, nanotechnology has entered every home.

- Is the problem of brain drain abroad still urgent?

- There are no boundaries for science. Our center regularly conducts research in cooperation with foreign scientists, including with the participation of my former graduate students working in France, the USA, Portugal and Ireland. Foreign scientists come to us, although their universities are well equipped. They note that in our country they manage to conduct research much faster.

Our compatriots who have changed their place of residence are in no hurry to return to their homeland. At the same time, many Chinese scientists returned to the Middle Kingdom, having worked for more than ten years at Oxford, Stanford and other leading centers. At home, they got growth prospects, they were offered modern laboratories and high salaries.

- The Ural Center was opened in 2007. What are your scientists doing today?

- In 2007, when the President of Russia announced the launch of a "pilot nanoproject" similar in ideology and scale to the nuclear or space project, we held an international conference on nanotechnology at the university (then Ural State U). I unwittingly turned out to be the main nanotechnologist in the Urals, since since 2000 I have been engaged in nanodomain engineering - the creation of nanostructures for optics and electronics in the world's leading centers, including Stanford University, in the laboratory - the "home" of the scanning probe microscope. After our center opened on December 12, 2007, the latest equipment appeared in the Urals.

Today Ural Center for Shared Use "Modern Nanotechnologies" is a point of attraction for researchers in the field of nanotechnology, a regional consultative center. We have brought together three areas - education, science and innovation. At present, the center is one of the best equipped Russian Nanotechnology Center for Collective Use.

Industrialists turn to us asking for help in solving production problems. For many years we have been cooperating with physicians who are studying the toxicity of nanoparticles of metal oxides: we study nanoparticles collected in workshops and, using lasers, create aqueous suspensions of similar particles to determine the MPC. One of the latest directions is the study of the formation of harmful nanoparticles of metal oxides in hot water, which makes us re-evaluate the quality of utensils for cooking.

- Which specialists get access to the equipment of the center?

- Carrying out measurements requires high qualifications, which our employees acquire, including during internships abroad. At the same time, graduate students and senior students are involved in the research. Our center is the Russian contact point of the network center for materials science and nanotechnology of the BRICS countries, so Russian and foreign graduate students come to us.

- This year UrFU celebrates its 100th anniversary. Do alumni maintain relations with the university, their academic leaders?

- We continue to maintain close ties and publish joint research papers with alumni working abroad. We recently held an international online conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the discovery of ferroelectricity. The conference was attended by more than 150 scientists from 21 cities in Russia and six countries, including my former graduate students from the USA and Portugal. Some alumni provide us with financial support. For example, Alexander Lukanin in 2014 established a scholarship for students of the Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of UrFU and sponsors international forums.

- How to raise the prestige of the nanotechnology profession?

He chooses nanotechnology for students, since IT is the most popular sphere on the labor market. But you need to understand that nanotechnology is widely educated. Acquiring knowledge in the field of physics, chemistry and biology, as well as mastering modern experimental techniques allow our graduates to be in demand both in science and in production. To raise the prestige of nanotechnology in Russia, it is necessary to create conditions for successful scientific activity. For decades, we have dreamed of building a modern research building.

- Which of the latest nano-developments do you consider promising?

- My whole life in science is associated with ferroelectrics - an electrical analogue of magnetic materials, the properties of which depend on their domain structure. Domain engineering opens up possibilities for improving piezoelectric crystals and ceramics, which are widely used as sources and receivers of sound, in particular, in medicine, in the diagnostics of sensors and pressure sensors, as well as energy conversion systems. Research in the field of nanobionics, which emerged from the use of nanotechnology to create technological devices, the idea and basic elements of which are borrowed from living nature, is extremely promising. We create water-repellent and antibacterial surfaces with a nanorelief similar to butterfly wings. At our bioengineering center, we print living cells to grow human organs from them.

- Professor Shur, how do you keep yourself in shape?

- Every morning I start with a feat - I do an original set of physical exercises: for example, three minutes of holding my breath and two minutes of planked handstand, keeping my body parallel to the floor. On self-isolation, I took up running - a half marathon every day, in three months wound more than 1800 kilometers around the room. I don't eat meat and don't dine. During the day I drink the best green tea possible to find - it remarkably increases performance. On the shelf in my office there is a rich selection - more than 150 varieties of tea brought from different parts of the world.

- Do your graduate students often make mistakes?

- Surprisingly, often when they think they have failed, discoveries are made. Thus, we were the first in the world to learn how to grow and explain the growth of ferroelectric domains in the form of dendrites (snowflakes) with nanoscale branches, which attracted the attention of metallurgists.

- Something unusual happened in the center?

- Once the honorary guests of UrFU shared their plans for the development of scientific research with the university leadership, representatives of the academy and the ministry. Such an unexpected choice of meeting place was explained by the fact that it is necessary to discuss plans where “science is being done”.