In the first demonstration of an electrically driven molecular motor, an electric current spins a single molecule like a pinwheel.
Charles Sykes and his colleagues at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, used a scanning tunnelling microscope to capture images of the molecule, butyl methyl sulphide, as it spun on a copper surface (pictured). The microscope also supplied the current to power the motion.
The molecule had a small preference for clockwise rotation in one experimental set-up. This shows that it could be used as a motor, rather than just a rotor, in molecular machines, the researchers say.
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Zap a molecule, make it spin. Nature 477, 134 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/477134c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/477134c