Developed the world’s smallest gear wheel

Integrating and transmitting motion with great precision is a big problem in molecular machines. A research team says that this problem can be overcome, noting that they have developed the world’s smallest working gear.

Smallest gear wheel developed

Playing a key role in the further development of modern technologies, miniaturization makes it possible to manufacture smaller devices with more power. At the same time, they have important uses such as molecular machines, the creation of electronic components and the transport of drugs in the body.

Scientists have previously succeeded in manufacturing at nanoscale some key components used in molecular machines such as switches, rotors, forceps, robot arms and even motors. Now, researchers from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg have produced the world’s smallest molecular gear wheel.

The molecular gear wheel, which is 1.6 nm in size, consists of two interlocked components consisting of only 71 atoms. One of these two components is a trypticene molecule with a structure similar to a propeller or scoop wheel, while the other is a flat piece of a thioindigo molecule similar to a small plate. Since the transmission ratio is 2:3, if the plate rotates 180 degrees, the propeller only rotates 120 degrees.

System Being easily switched on and off using light, it is the first mechanism by which molecular gears allow this type of direct control, rather than just passive motion.

The researchers expect their system to allow for more versatile molecular machines and pave the way for new nanoscale gear systems that, like their macroscale counterparts, can transmit motion over longer distances, in different directions, and at different speeds.