First, you make an engine about a nanometer or so across, then you strengthen it with carbon nanotubes, then you crank it up with rocket fuel. Scientists in Arizona have created a powerful little nanomotor which has some big potential applications.
The new additions revved up the tiny motors to 20 times faster than existing nanomotors.
A nanomachine is a tiny device that is less than a micron (one millionth of a meter) in size that scientists hope to use in a variety of medical and research applications.
The Arizona team's powerful nanomotors could one day deliver disease-fighting drugs inside the body to invading pathogens or tumor cells or help clean up environmental toxins by using them as fuel.
"This is the first example of a powerful, man-made nanomotor," said Joseph Wang, director of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University and a coauthor on the study to appear in the May 27 issue of the American Chemical Society Nano.
This is a reworking of an existing nanomotor, with gold at one end, and platinum at the other, which breaks up hydrogen peroxide or hydrazine molecules (rocket fuel) into water and oxygen, producing what the scientists say are “little jets of water”.
Adding the carbon nanotubes was the new factor.
Carbon nanotubes are tiny tubes, only a few atoms thick, made up entirely of carbon atoms. The atoms are linked extremely tightly together to create a material that conducts electricity and heat. They have a huge range of uses that seems to grow by the day, from helping repair bones to solar panels.
When hydrogen peroxide (the fuel) was added, the tiny motors topped out at 60 micrometers per second, six times faster than the previous record.
Next, Wang and his colleagues spiked the engine's fuel with hydrazine. The motors shifted into fifth gear and sped away at nearly 200 micrometers per second.
There is still some speculation about the exact reason why the nanomotors speed up so much, but Wang suspects that the carbon nanotubes sped up the electron in gold-platinum rod, allowing for more reactions to take place.
That’s the key. The reaction was a lot more powerful, so the rod, which does the work, could obviously handle it better with the added support.
The nanomotors have produced some good ideas. Many pathogens and pollutants, even tumors, produce chemicals which the nanomotors can use as fuel. Many of those chemicals, like hydrogen peroxide, for example, are themselves dangerous, and anything which breaks it down is a very useful thing.
The added power also means the nanoengines can power much more versatile nano machines. They can actively deliver things like medication to sites, as distinct from the normal passive approach of tablets, where the chemicals have to literally run into what they’re supposed to fix.
You could have your own little nano-cleaners scuttling around inside cleaning things up, putting up new curtains and dusting things, etc, powered by your very own home grown peroxide.
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