Prof. David Zitoun is Full Professor and head of the Department of Chemistry and a member of the Nano-Energy and Nano-Materials Center at the Bar-Ilan Institute of Nano-technology and Advanced Materials (BINA).

My research group synthesizes nanoscale materials and investigates their applications to devices (mainly electrochemical and electrical). Towards this goal, the group investigates the synthesis of nanoscale objects, their integration in nano-, micro- or macro-electrodes and develops operando experimental techniques to gain knowledge on the phenomena at work during device operation.

The nanoscale objects reveal interesting phenomena which differ from the bulk materials and are mainly highlighted by the predominance of surfaces, the phase changes and the metastable arrangement of atoms. These nanoscale objects display unique electromagnetic and chemical properties. These effects are observed in quantum dots, plasmonic, magnetic and catalytic nanoparticles.

The main research efforts of the lab consist in the wet chemical synthesis of nanoscale objects and metastable nanostructures, mainly based on transition metals. It applies to electrode materials for batteries, to electrocatalysts for fuel cells, water splitting and redox-flow batteries and to electrical sensors.

The lab has strong collaborations with other disciplines (physics, engineering, life sciences), with the industry and with international labs (US, European Union, China, South-Korea).