Nanocars driven by UV light
29 Nov 2016 by Evoluted New Media
An international collaboration has seen scientists control single molecule ‘nanoroadsters’ with light and also observe, for the first time, how they move.
Alongside experimental physicists in Austria, the scientists were able to drive a fleet of the vehicles, first created at Rice University in Texas, using ultraviolet light.
Dr James Tour, from Rice University and co-author of the study published in ACS Nano, said: “These three-wheelers are the first example of light-powered nanovehicles being observed to propel across a surface by any method, let alone by scanning tunnelling microscopy.”
The researchers used light at specific wavelengths to move the nanocars along a copper surface instead of driving them chemically or with the tip of a tunnelling microscope. The cars’ rear wheels have molecular motors that rotate in a single direction when light hits them.
It was the invention of these wavelength-sensitive motors which helped Dr Bernard Feringa win this year’s Chemistry Nobel Prize. Dr Tour modified the motors to power his nanocars. Professor Leonhard Grill, from the University of Graz who led the experiment with Dr Tour, said that remote control of these nanocars using light removes the need for a local probe to interact with the molecules individually.
Dr Tour said: “If we have to 'wire' the car to a power source, like an electron beam, we would lose a lot of the cars' functionality. Powering them with light frees them to be driven wherever one can shine a light - and eventually we hope they will carry cargo."
The roadsters were made of 112 atoms and reached a top speed of 23 nanometres per hour. Ultraviolet light at 266nm doubled the roadsters’ movement compared with control molecules – lacking motors. When ultraviolet light at 355nm was shone on the nanocars, their movement tripled.
The cars will be racing at the 2016 Nanocar Race, held in France.
