The world's smallest motor made from 16 atoms is developed, based on the mystery of quantum physics
A very small 'molecular motor', about 1/100,000 the diameter of human hair, was created from just 16 atoms.
Molecular motor crossing the frontier of classical to quantum tunneling motion | PNAS
Empa-Communication-Molecular Motor
https://www.empa.ch/web/s604/molecular-motor
Developed by the Swiss Federal Institute for Materials Testing (Empa) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) research team, the world's smallest motor operates in the same way as in the macro world, 'converting energy into motion'. I will. Such motors exist in nature, and one of them is myosin, a motor protein that causes muscles to contract.
Similar to so-called everyday motors, motors consisting of 16 atoms also have stators and rotors .
In a molecular motor, the energy that drives the motor may come from random directions, so it is necessary to fix the direction of rotation for the motor to function. Generally, the
This means that normally the pawl will follow the smooth surface of the gear and will lock there when it dives from the edge, but for a molecular motor climbing a steep edge will give more energy than sliding on a smooth surface. I didn't need it. However, since the movement of atoms is prioritized in the 'blocked direction', the ratchet mechanism has succeeded as a substantial orientation.
Researchers created a triangular stator using six
As a result of using four atoms made from acetylene as a rotor, the rotor continued to rotate in one direction around the stator with 99% stability, the researchers say. This is not the first attempt to make a motor using atoms, but the fact that 'it rotates in one direction with stable directionality' is a big difference from the others.
A motor with 16 atoms works by both thermal energy and electric energy, but in the case of thermal energy, the motor will move randomly at room temperature. On the other hand, in the case of electric energy, it was possible to rotate the molecular motor in the same direction by 1/6 with one electron, but if the amount of energy is increased, the number of rotations increases, but the energy to rotate the ratchet in the reverse direction is increased. Also, there was a tendency that the direction of rotation was random because it was supplied.
At this time, from the standpoint of classical physics, the minimum energy to move the motor against the resistance of the tilt should be required for the motor to rotate, but for the molecular motor it is the minimum energy 'minus 256 degrees'. It was said that it worked with less than 'thermal energy of' or '30 microvolt electric energy'. From this, it is considered that the '
The tunnel effect is a phenomenon that 'particles pass through a region that cannot be exceeded in terms of energy'. If the tunnel effect occurs in the molecular motor, it is necessary to overcome the inclination with insufficient kinetic energy. Therefore, it can be explained that the motor operates below the minimum energy. However, if the tunnel effect actually occurs, the rotor should not move in one direction.
Nevertheless, the molecular motors created in the study are 99% oriented. From here, researchers suggest the possibility that 'a slight loss of energy is occurring when the tunnel effect occurs.' The world's smallest motor consisting of 16 atoms not only 'developed a toy for molecular craftsmen,' but also provided important insights as it clarified the process and reason of energy loss in the tunnel effect. Researchers believe that there is.
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