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Wednesday, 19th October 2005 (5544 views)

Scientists in America have launched the world's first nanocar, which runs on a gold surface.

A group of researchers from Rice University, Houston, has announced the creation of the world's first single-molecule car.

The car was created by professor James M Tour and his team, who constructed an oligo (phenylene ethynylene) chassis and axle which were then mounted onto four fullerene wheels.

Palladium catalysts were used to create the reactions needed to synthesise the axle and chassis together.

However, the team encountered problems when attempting to attach the wheels, as transition metal catalysts could not be used with the fullerene wheels.

Once this problem had been overcome, Professor Tour was able to drive the nanocar around a gold surface using electrical engineering.

The nanocars could move over the gold surface when heated to between 170oc and 225oc, but remained stationary below this temperature due to the adhesion of the fullerene with the gold.

"It's the beginning of learning how to manipulate things at the nanolevel in nonbiological systems," Professor Tour explained to Chemical and Engineering News.

This latest breakthrough comes following last month's announcement that scientists had developed the world's first universal nanoscale material testing system (n-MTS), which is used for mechanical testing of nanoscale objects.

 

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