The NanoCar Race is a competition of molecular-sized machines that move through a nanocircuit, and can only be seen with a sophisticated microscope. These nanocars are propelled by pulses of electrical energy that move them over a gold surface maintained at – 268 ° C.
The test will be the first of its kind and will last at least two days and two nights, time that includes the time necessary to build each participant’s lane atom by atom. The event will be held in the near future (yet to be announced) at the Pico Lab of the Center for the Elaboration of Materials and Structural Studies (CEMES / CNRS) located in Toulouse.
But what is a nanocar?
A vehicle made up of a single molecule made up of about one hundred atoms and incorporating a chassis, axles and wheels that rotate independently. To give you an idea of the scale we are talking about, think that a nanometer is equal to one billionth (10 -9) of a meter. That is, what is:
- 500,000 times finer than the line drawn by a ballpoint pen.
- 30,000 times thinner than a hair.
- 100 times smaller than a DNA molecule.
- The size of 4 lined up silicon atoms.
The Nanocar Race has six confirmed teams, teams made up of scientists from various research centers that will launch their racing cars under the watchful eye of a tunnel-effect microscope, an instrument for taking images of surfaces at the atomic level that is the only device capable to follow this peculiar great prize.
This device will also be responsible for providing participants with the energy they need to move. Each team will have a screen and a control to guide and manage their car.
And all this for what, you ask? Well, to learn to handle molecules capable of moving across a surface transporting other molecules. It is no nonsense: the recent Nobel Prize in Chemistry has gone to the British Fraser Stoddart, the Dutch Bernard Feringa and the French Jean-Pierre Sauvage for “designing and producing molecular machines” controllable by supplying energy: light, heat, charge. electrical …
Feringa and his team created a nanocar that moved on a metal surface powered by four molecular wheels controlled by light and electrical energy, and that opens the door to a myriad of applications. For example, designing nanorobots that, once injected into the body, search for cancer cells to destroy them.
Image: The illustration shows a nanocar designed by scientists at Rice University (USA).
