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World’s smallest gear

AmericaScientists have built tiny working gears that are only 71 atoms long and 1.6 nanometers long.





An illustration of how each component of a molecular optical gear works (left), a molecular model of the two components in the gear - the gray rotor and the yellow disc (right).  Photo: FAU

An illustration of how each component of a molecular optical gear works (left), a molecular model of the two components in the gear – the gray rotor and the yellow disc (right). Image: FAU

In many areas of technology, smaller means better. Today’s machines have also become so compact that they can be measured in atoms. The team at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany, developed a new device that claims to be the world’s smallest working gear. Research published in the journal Nature Chemistry April 18th.

Nanorobots and molecular machines could become extremely useful in the coming decades, helping to build electronic devices, deliver drugs in the body, and manipulate individual cells and molecules. Scientists have developed nanoscale versions of many machine parts, such as motors, pistons, pumps, wrenches and propellers.

The FAU team of experts adds an essential ingredient to the list, gears. The device consists of two interlocking parts: A triptycene molecule with a propeller-like structure and perpendicular to it is a flat piece of a thioindigo molecule that acts like a saucer.

They work together as a pair of gears, helping to transmit and reduce motion. They have a gear ratio of 2:3 so when the disc rotates 180 degrees, the propeller rotates only 120 degrees. The entire device contains only 71 atoms and is 1.6 nanometers long.

The system can be switched on and off easily by light, so it is called molecular optical gear. This is the first time that molecular gears allow such direct control instead of just passive motion.

The new molecular optical gears make molecular machinery more flexible, the team says, paving the way for new nanoscale gear systems that can transmit motion over longer distances, in different directions. different and with different speed, like large size gear type.

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