Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Construction and Operation of a Light-driven Gold Nanorod Rotary Motor System
Published on: June 30, 2018
Nanolocomotion - catalytic nanomotors and nanorotors
Tihana Mirkovic1, Nicole S Zacharia, Gregory D Scholes
1Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Abstract:
Nature's nanomachines, built of dynamically integrated biochemical components, powered by energy-rich biochemical processes, and designed to perform a useful task, have evolved over millions of years. They provide the foundation of all living systems on our planet today. Yet synthetic nanomotors, driven by simple chemical reactions and which could function as building blocks for synthetic nanomachines that can perform useful tasks, have been discovered only in the last few years. Why did it take so long to power-up a myriad of synthetic nanostructures from their well-known static states to new and exciting dynamic ones of the kind that abound in nature? This article will delve into this disconnect between the world of biological and abiological nanomotors, then take a look at some recent developments involving chemically powered nanoscale motors and rotors, and finally try to imagine: what's next for nanolocomotion?
Related Concept Videos
The Movement of Organelles and Vesicles
Microtubules in Cell Motility
Microtubules in Cell Motility
Microtubule Associated Motor Proteins
Mechanism of Ciliary Motion
The cilia are made up of microtubules in a 9+2 arrangement, with nine microtubule doublet ring bundles, surrounding a pair of central singlet microtubule bundles. The doublet microtubule bundles are...
Anaphase A and B
Plus-end depolymerization releases tubulin heterodimers from the terminal region of the microtubule. As tubulin subunits are lost, the Ndc80 complexes detach...

