Now on the molecular scale: Electric motors

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 […]

Infrared light antenna powers molecular motor

EurekAlert  October 28, 2020 Light-controlled molecular motors can be used to create functional materials, to provide autonomous motion or in systems that can respond on command. An international team of researchers (the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany) designed a rotary motor that is efficiently powered by near-infrared light, through adding an antenna to the motor molecule. Through a covalent bond, the motor molecule was linked to an ‘antenna’, which can absorb two near-infrared photons. The resulting excitation of the antenna is then passed on to the motor part of the molecule. For the system to work, the energy levels of the antenna […]

The smallest motor in the world

Science Daily  June 16, 2020 Researchers in Switzerland have developed a molecular motor which consists of only 16 atoms and rotates reliably in one direction. It could allow energy harvesting at the atomic level. The special feature of the motor is that it moves exactly at the boundary between classical motion and quantum tunneling — and has revealed puzzling phenomena to researchers in the quantum realm…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE