When you work with single molecules, things get seriously small. So much so that a 1-nanometre-long molecule has won the Guinness world record for the tiniest electric motor ever.
The micromotor is the first to show controlled, electrically driven motion 鈥� essential for a device to be classed as a motor 鈥� in a single molecule. Previous atomic-scale engines have used energy from light and chemical reactions.
To make the motor go, at Tufts University in Boston and colleagues anchored an asymmetrical propeller-like molecule 鈥� a sulphur atom sandwiched between one carbon atom and a four-carbon chain 鈥� to a copper sheet.
Advertisement
Above the molecule, they placed a metal needle a few atoms wide at its tip. When the researchers sent a current from this tip through the molecule to the conductive copper below, the molecule converted the electrical energy into rotational energy.
Tiny motors could be used in 鈥渓ab-on-a-chip鈥� devices to power tasks such as pushing fluid through tiny channels.
Journal reference: