A nice new object in the nanotech showroom: A team lead by James Tour of Rice University, Houston, presented the first motorized, single-molecule nanocar. It's made out of exactly 169 atoms, he told me. The motor is propelled by ultraviolet light pulses and already tested in a liquid. The next step is to put it on a flat surface. (See also the report by Peter Spotts in the Christian Science Monitor, 20.4.2006.) The futuristic goal: The car shall mimic nature and transport and assemble tiny building blocks to larger structures. The image below (provided by Rice University) shows a computer simulation of the nanocar.
Here a brief description of the car.
Here a brief description of the car.
- size: 4nm x 3nm (length x width)
- assembly method: self-assembling chemical reactions
- wheels: spherical molecules of C, H and B, called p-carborane
- chassis: chain of five benzene molecules
- axles: free spinning alkynes
- motor: light-activated, paddle-shaped molecule
- battery: none, activated by UV light
- in total: 169 atoms, for chemists C59H68B40S2
- manual: Organic Letters (Vol.8,p.1713)