Nanotech molecular gear of size 1.2nm invented

19 June 2009

Professor Christian Joachim of IMRE has led the team of researchers to invent a unique and first time in world a nanoscale molecular gear of 1.2nm size only that can deliberately be rotated and controlled. The invention can significantly change the understanding and further work on nanotech machines.

Professor Joachim focuses on controlling the motion of the miniature molecular gear that is different from other nanotech gears as it is one of the fully functional gear that can lead to invention of many more complex molecular machines of size of a grain of sand or smaller. The research finding has been published in the Nature Materials.

So far the motion of nanotech gears manufactured by other teams of researchers was random and difficult to control. Researchers at IMRE (Institute of Material Research and Engineering) considered the surface chemistry and molecular manipulation and designed the nanotech molecular gear so that the researchers can control the rotation of the gear and they succeeded.

Researchers at IMRE under the guidance of Professor Joachim succeeded in well controlling the rotation of molecular gear by manipulating the electrical signal between molecules. Researchers are hopeful the future molecular gears will have many added advantages and could be used for controlled drug therapies and many other fields of science.

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