Researchers at Rice University have created a "nanocar" measuring just 4 x 3 nanometers. It is slightly wider than a strand of DNA -- a human hair is about 80,000 nanometers thick. The car has a chassis, axles and a pivoting suspension. The wheels are buckyballs, spheres of pure carbon containing 60 atoms apiece.
From the article:
Other research groups have created nanoscale objects that are shaped like automobiles, but study co-author Kevin F. Kelly, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, said Rice's vehicle is the first that actually functions like a car, rolling on four wheels in a direction perpendicular to its axles.
Kelly and his group, experts in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), provided the measurements and experimental evidence that verified the rolling movement.
"It's fairly easy to build nanoscale objects that slide around on a surface," Kelly said. "Proving that we were rolling, not slipping and sliding, was one of the most difficult parts of this project."
To do that, Kelly and graduate student Andrew Osgood measured the movement of the nanocars across a gold surface. At room temperature, strong electrical bonds hold the buckyball wheels tightly against the gold, but heating to about 200 degrees Celsius frees them to roll. To prove that the cars were rolling rather than sliding, Kelly and Osgood took STM images every minute and watched the cars progress. Because nanocars' axles are slightly longer than the wheelbase the distance between axles they could determine the way the cars were oriented and whether they moved perpendicular to the axles.
The car is a bit small to survive heavy traffic on the Gowanus Expressway, so why would anyone build such a tiny vehicle? The plan is to eventually construct nano-size trucks that could carry atoms and molecules around in miniature factories. We suppose it could also make an excellent conveyance for a dozen or so nanoclowns. --James Ross
From the article:
Other research groups have created nanoscale objects that are shaped like automobiles, but study co-author Kevin F. Kelly, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, said Rice's vehicle is the first that actually functions like a car, rolling on four wheels in a direction perpendicular to its axles.
Kelly and his group, experts in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), provided the measurements and experimental evidence that verified the rolling movement.
"It's fairly easy to build nanoscale objects that slide around on a surface," Kelly said. "Proving that we were rolling, not slipping and sliding, was one of the most difficult parts of this project."
To do that, Kelly and graduate student Andrew Osgood measured the movement of the nanocars across a gold surface. At room temperature, strong electrical bonds hold the buckyball wheels tightly against the gold, but heating to about 200 degrees Celsius frees them to roll. To prove that the cars were rolling rather than sliding, Kelly and Osgood took STM images every minute and watched the cars progress. Because nanocars' axles are slightly longer than the wheelbase the distance between axles they could determine the way the cars were oriented and whether they moved perpendicular to the axles.
The car is a bit small to survive heavy traffic on the Gowanus Expressway, so why would anyone build such a tiny vehicle? The plan is to eventually construct nano-size trucks that could carry atoms and molecules around in miniature factories. We suppose it could also make an excellent conveyance for a dozen or so nanoclowns. --James Ross
1 comment:
Some people just have too much time on their hands.
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