Super Speedy Nanosub Powered by Light

Nov-19-15 Researchers have created nanosubmaries powered by light that could deliver drugs within the body at a “breakneck pace.”

Developed by a team from Rice University, the nanosubs consist of 244 atoms packed inside a molecule and are equipped with a tiny tail that functions as a propeller. When the nanosub is exposed to UV light, the double-bond that holds the propeller turns into a single bond, rotating the propeller a quarter-turn. That movement causes the propeller to try to revert back to its lower energy state by jumping atoms to turn another quarter-rotation, and so on, moving at more than one million RPM until the UV light is turned off.

The team hopes that eventually the technology could be used to create nanosubs able to ferry medicines and other cargo within the human body.

Image: A chemical schematic shows the design of single-molecule nanosubmersibles created at Rice University. The sub's fluorescent pontoons are blue; the motor is red. (Illustration by Victor García-López)

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[GIZMAG.COM]
[NEWS.RICE.EDU]

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