What the World’s Tiniest ‘Monster Truck’ Reveals
“The overarching goal was to advertise nanoscience to the public,” Eric Masson, Ph.D., says. “Then there was the technical challenge of manipulating multiple nanocars at the same time using a scanning tunneling microscope, or STM, instrument. Additionally, every team had its own goal. Ours was to see if we could deposit an intact supramolecular assembly onto a surface, and control its motion.”Ohio University’s nano-sized monster truck led to a curious finding.
“We incorporated positive charge receptors in the car,” Hla says. “So if we injected a positive charge in the STM tip pointed at the car, there would be repulsion, and the car would move. We found it worked very well.”
The competition, billed as the first-ever nanocar race, was held at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Toulouse on April 28. Six teams from three continents entered their molecule-sized racers. But because the STM instrument in Toulouse only had four tips that could each control only one nanocar, the Ohio team kept their nanowagon in Hla’s lab but “drove” it remotely from CNRS.
“My understanding is that this was a first,” Hla says. “We manipulated the car at the atomic scale from half a globe away.”
Hla and Masson’s nanowagon traveled 43 nanometers on the gold track before it got stuck due to a particularly rough section of the track and a power blip in the Midwest. Although it didn’t complete the course, it went farther than three other contestants, earning the team a third-place showing.
Masson and Hla say the Ohio team uncovered something intriguing as a result of the race. They had assembled the nanowagon by suspending the chassis molecules in water, adding the wheel molecules and then evaporating the water. About 70 percent of the resulting structures looked like two-wheeled hover boards, a few had three wheels, and about 10 percent had all four wheels. They were surprised to find that very few wheels weren’t connected to anything.
“That means that it was easier to break the chassis, a covalent bond, than to break the noncovalent bonds between the chassis and the wheels,” Masson says. “That’s completely counterintuitive because typically a noncovalent bond is much weaker than a covalent bond. It’s a theoretical curiosity.”
How this information might apply ultimately to molecular machines in the future remains unknown, although many scientists envision that tiny vehicles like these could be used in electronics and data storage. Masson and Hla both stress that the work is still in its early stages. Before applications come along, scientists need to understand how molecules behave at the atomic scale.
“Our excitement is really about the fundamental science,” Hla says. “This is just the beginning.”
The researchers acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation, Ohio University, and the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences grant DE-FG02-02ER46012.
Contacts and sources:
The American Chemical Society
Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/2017/08/what-worlds-tiniest-monster-truck.html
Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.
"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.
Please Help Support BeforeitsNews by trying our Natural Health Products below!
Order by Phone at 888-809-8385 or online at https://mitocopper.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomic.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomics.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Humic & Fulvic Trace Minerals Complex - Nature's most important supplement! Vivid Dreams again!
HNEX HydroNano EXtracellular Water - Improve immune system health and reduce inflammation.
Ultimate Clinical Potency Curcumin - Natural pain relief, reduce inflammation and so much more.
MitoCopper - Bioavailable Copper destroys pathogens and gives you more energy. (See Blood Video)
Oxy Powder - Natural Colon Cleanser! Cleans out toxic buildup with oxygen!
Nascent Iodine - Promotes detoxification, mental focus and thyroid health.
Smart Meter Cover - Reduces Smart Meter radiation by 96%! (See Video).
Next they’ll probably try a working combustible Just for fun.. Or make a real tron nanobike.. Bloody smarties