Monomolecule car
2005/10/24 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia
Scientists at Rice University celebrate the smallest car in the world. It has a single molecule, but like conventional cars, it has a rack, axes and four wheels.
So far, other groups of researchers have manufactured nanoobjects that are shaped like cars, but, according to the researchers of Rice University, the first vehicle that works like cars is the one that they have developed, that is, the one that advances perpendicularly to the axes with the movement of the four wheels that turn.
The car has an approximate length of 3-4 nanometers, twenty times smaller than the diameter of a hair. The chassis and axes are formed by well-defined organic groups, which allow a swivel suspension and free rotation of the axes. The wheels are fulerenos and are formed by 60 carbon atoms.
The researchers have taken eight years to build the vehicle. It has been especially difficult to tie the wheels to the frame and to the axes. However, the hardest thing has been to show that it really works. For this purpose, they have circulated the nanocar on a golden surface and, through the STM technique, they have been able to see and record how it moves.
Photo: T. T. Sasaki University/Rice
