Self-Assembly of Nano-Rotors

[TECH NEWS]

In the nanoworld many things are different. Scientists only recently started unveiling and harnessing the underlying laws and principles. A team associated with Professor Johannes Barth from the Physics Department of the TU Muenchen have now succeeded in capturing rod-shaped molecules in a two-dimensional network in such a way that they autonomously form small rotors that turn in their honeycomb-like cages. Nature itself provides the role model for such self-organizing systems. This is how proteins bring reactants so close together that reactions can take place — reactions that are possible only in very close proximity. These effects are put to use in catalysts: surface reactants find their way to each other on the surface of these facilitators. However, the coveted dream of using self-organization effects in such a way that nano machines assemble themselves is still a thing of the future. The rotors developed in Garching are an important step in this direction.

11/24/10, ScienceDaily