Scientists Soup Up Micro Speed Racer

Carbon nanotubes are tiny tubes, only a few atoms thick, made up entirely of carbon atoms. The atoms are linked extremely tightly together to create a material that conducts electricity and heat. They have a huge range of uses that seems to grow by the day, from helping repair bones to solar panels.

When hydrogen peroxide (the fuel) was added, the tiny motors topped out at 60 micrometers per second, six times faster than the previous record.

Next, Wang and his colleagues spiked the engine's fuel with hydrazine. The motors shifted into fifth gear and sped away at nearly 200 micrometers per second.

There is still some speculation about the exact reason why the nanomotors speed up so much, but Wang suspects that the carbon nanotubes sped up the electron in gold-platinum rod, allowing for more reactions to take place.

The fact that the researchers used rocket fuel is coincidental. Other teams have created biobased nanomotors that use simple sugar as fuel to carry very small objects.

Whatever the fuel, it just has to be found in the nanomotors immediate environment. Unlike a traditional automobile that carries its fuel with it, nanomotors are too small for a fuel tank and have to use whatever they can find.

"It's kind of like a battery that chases its nose," said Crespi.

The same way a bigger automobile is faster and more powerful than a compact car, faster, more powerful nanomotors could carry big, heavy drugs or biological markers directly to a site in the body faster than anything today.

Although any real-world applications are still years away, Wang and his fellow researchers are trying to adapt the powerful nanomotors for use inside the body and for environmental remediation.

If a hazardous chemical is released into the environment, nanomotors could use them as fuel to power themselves. As they move through the contaminate they spit harmless chemicals out of their nanotailpipes.

In the body, drugs work by passively diffusing through the body until they literally run into their target, whether that target is a tumor or a invading pathogen.

Pathogens and tumors both release chemicals that nanomotors could use as fuel. Once the injected nanomotors detect that fuel they would activate, swimming directly to the source and delivering their cargo.

"There are a wide range of applications for these nanomotors," said Wang.

Related Links:

Eric Bland's blog: What the Tech?

How Stuff Works: Carbon Nanotubes

Biodesign Institute