(Nanowerk News) Chemists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences have developed the world's first single molecule electric motor, a development that may potentially create a new class of devices that could be used in applications ranging from medicine to engineering. In research published online September 4 in Nature Nanotechnology ("Experimental demonstration of a single-molecule electric motor"), the Tufts team reports an electric motor that measures a mere 1 nanometer across, groundbreaking work considering that the current world record is a 200 nanometer motor. A single strand of human hair is about 60,000 nanometers wide. According to E. Charles H. Sykes, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry at Tufts and senior author on the paper, the team plans to submit the Tufts-built electric motor to Guinness World Records.

The molecular motor was powered by electricity from a state of the art, low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. This microscope sent an electrical current through the molecule, directing the molecule to rotate in one direction or another. The molecule had a sulfur base (yellow); when placed on a conductive slab of copper (orange), it became anchored to the surface. The sulfur-containing molecule had carbon and hydrogen atoms radiating off to form what looks like two arms (gray); these carbon chains were free to rotate around the central sulfur-copper bond. The researchers found that reducing the temperature of the molecule to five Kelvin (K), or about minus 450 degrees Fahrenheit (ºF), enabled them to precisely impact the direction and rotational speed of the molecular motor The Tufts team plans to submit this miniature electric motor to the Guinness World Records. The research was published online September 4 in Nature Nanotechnology (Image/Figure courtesy of Sykes Laboratory-Tufts University)