Washington, May 2: Arizona researchers have made a breakthrough development by making a new generation of sub-microscopic nanomotors that are up to 10 times more powerful than existing motors.
The development, say researchers led by Joseph Wang, is a big step forward to a practical energy source for powering tomorrow’s nanomachines.
Currently nanomotors, including so-called “catalytic nanomotors,” are made with gold and platinum nanowires and use hydrogen peroxide fuel for self-propulsion.
However, these motors are quite slow and inefficient for practical use and can only reach the top speeds of about 10 micrometers per second. One micrometer is about 1/25,000 of an inch or almost 100 times smaller than the width of a human hair.