Science Daily January 11, 2023
An international team of researchers (USA – Northwestern University, Caltech, University of Maine, Switzerland, Italy, UK, Australia) has developed an electric molecular motor that works in solution using chemistry to effectively drive a molecular motor, much like a macroscopic motor. The motor was easy to make, operated quickly and did not produce any waste products. The 2 nanometers wide molecular motor was the first to be produced en masse in abundance. They focused on catenanes held together by powerful mechanical bonds, so the components could move freely relative to each other without falling apart. According to the researchers the next step for the electric molecular motor is to attach many of the motors to an electrode surface to influence the surface and ultimately do some useful work. It has implications for materials science and particularly medicine, where the electric molecular motor could team up with biomolecular motors in the human body…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Measurement of the unidirectionality. Credit: Nature volume 613, pages280–286 (2023)Â