Nano World: First solar-powered nano motor

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The absorption of sunlight by one of the two stoppers a light-harvesting one causes the transfer of one electron to station A which is deactivated as far as wanting the ring to encircle it. As a consequence the ring moves to its second port of call s ...
The absorption of sunlight by one of the two stoppers, a light-harvesting one, causes the transfer of one electron to station A, which is deactivated as far as wanting the ring to encircle it. As a consequence, the ring moves to its second port of call, station B. Station A is subsequently reactivated by the return of the transferred electron to the light-harvesting stopper, and the ring moves back to this station. Copyright © UCLA

An international team of scientists has created the first molecular motor powered solely by sunlight. By acting like pistons that move back and forth, these motors, which are only nanometers or billionths of meters across, could help read out data as ones and zeroes "for molecular photonics and electronics, two rapidly growing fields aimed at the construction of chemical computers," said researcher Vincenzo Balzani, a chemist at the University of Bologna, Italy.


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