[Coco] OT: Nanomotors

[Tony Schountz]

Of course, the "such beasts" are the nanomotors.

On Oct 6, 2005, at 5:38 PM, Tony Schountz wrote:

> Well, I was reading a paper on the 1918 influenza pandemic in  
> today's issue of _Science_ and the article immediately following it  
> caught my attention. Apparently, a group from the Netherlands has  
> managed to make such beasts that run on chemical energy. Although  
> "nanogears" have been made in the past, no one had yet produced  
> motors. This, of course, has been one of the limitations in  
> producing mobile nanoobjects. It has interesting, and perhaps  
> frightful, prospects. Below is the paper's abstract.
>
> T.
> --
> A Reversible, Unidirectional Molecular Rotary Motor Driven by  
> Chemical Energy
>
> Stephen P. Fletcher, Frédéric Dumur, Michael M. Pollard, Ben L.  
> Feringa
>
> Department of Organic and Molecular Inorganic Chemistry, Stratingh  
> Institute, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG  
> Groningen, Netherlands.
>
> With the long-term goal of producing nanometer-scale machines, we  
> describe here the unidirectional rotary motion of a synthetic  
> molecular structure fueled by chemical conversions. The basis of  
> the rotation is the movement of a phenyl rotor relative to a  
> naphthyl stator about a single bond axle. The sense of rotation is  
> governed by the choice of chemical reagents that power the motor  
> through four chemically distinct stations. Within the stations, the  
> rotor is held in place by structural features that limit the extent  
> of the rotor's Brownian motion relative to the stator.