14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists from the University of California in San Diego (UCSD), led by expert Joseph Wang, have recently developed nanoscale motors that are capable of being propelled through liquids using solely electric fields. The machines essentially have no onboard propulsion systems, which means that they could be used for a wide array of applications in the near future, both in the human bodies, and in various branches of the industry. According to Chemistry World, all the devices need in order to move is an electric field applied from the exterior of the liquid.
Nanomotors is a name given to a very generic class of devices. Essentially, it refers to very small machines, only a few billionths of a meter large, that are apt to convert energy into motion. This sort of instruments actually has a lot of uses in medicine, especially in biomedical applications and in microsurgery. In the future, half of an operation could take place inside the body, and away from a human surgeon's knife. Such machines could be maneuvered into position near an affected area, and then a doctor would control their action via external electrical impulses. The same could be accomplished for drug delivery as well.
This is not the first research to focus on constructing nanomotors. Other research groups managed to use catalytic carbon nanowires, made of various types of metal at each end, for this very purpose. However, these wires needed a chemical propellant and fuel, such as hydrogen peroxide. What Wang and his team did was basically create a type of nanomotor that required no additional chemicals or fuel to work. The group used polypyrrole-cadmium nanowires for their motor. These wires contain a diode that allows electrical current to flow through it in a single direction.
As soon as an alternating electrical current is applied through the diode, the wires are propelled forward by a distance equal to roughly seven times their own length. All of this distance is covered in less than a second, which is a very promising result. It implies that, even if the machines are inserted into the body a bit further away from the area that needs treatment, they can still be maneuvered into position in a relative short amount of time. This achievement is “an important contribution to the field of nanomachines,” Complutense University of Madrid nanomotor expert Jose Pingarron says.