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..Scientists have created the world's smallest electric motor, made from a single molecule.
The tiny gadget is expected to lead to new devices that can be used in medicine and engineering.
The microscopic motor is just one nanometre across, about 60,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
Team leader Dr Charles Sykes, from Tufts University in Boston, US, said: "There has been significant progress in the construction of molecular motors powered by light and by chemical reactions, but this is the first time that electrically-driven molecular motors have been demonstrated, despite a few theoretical proposals.
"We have been able to show that you can provide electricity to a single molecule and get it to do something that is not just random."
The scientists, who describe their achievement in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, used a state-of-the-art low temperature scanning tunnelling microscope, which uses electrons instead of light to "see" molecules.
The microscope's metal tip provided an electrical charge to a butyl methyl sulphide molecule placed on a conductive copper surface.
This caused compass needle-like "arms" of carbon and hydrogen atoms to rotate around a central axis.
Direction and speed were affected by temperature. The scientists found that a freezing minus 268C proved ideal for tracking the motor's motion. The motor span much faster at higher temperatures, making it difficult to observe and control.
Dr Sykes added: "Once we have a better grasp on the temperatures necessary to make these motors function, there could be real-world application in some sensing and medical devices which involve tiny pipes. Friction of the fluid against the pipe walls increases at these small scales, and covering the wall with motors could help drive fluids along."
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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/motor-created-single-molecule-170140762.html
Wynaleziono silnik o wielkości jednego nanometra! Chyba szpiegowskie komary to już przeżytek
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