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Updated: Dec 4, 2025

Construction and Operation of a Light-driven Gold Nanorod Rotary Motor System
Published on: June 30, 2018
Nanocars with Permanent Dipoles: Preparing for the Second International Nanocar Race
Alexis van Venrooy, Víctor García-López, John Tianci Li
1Department of Physical and Applied Sciences, University of Houston-Clear Lake, 2700 Bay Area Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77058, United States.
Abstract:
With the desire to synthesize surface-rolling molecular machines that can be translated and rotated with extreme precision and speed, we have synthesized a series of five nanocars. Each structure features a permanent dipole moment, generated by an N,N-dimethylamino- moiety on one end of the car coupled with a nitro group on the other end. These cars are designed to be stimulated with an electric field gradient from a scanning probe microscopy tip. The nanocars all possess unexplored combinations of structural features: tert-butyl wheels, short alkyne chassis, and combination sets of wheels including one set of tert-butyl wheels and another set of larger adamantane wheels on the same car. Each of these features needs to be assessed as preparation for the second International Nanocar Race that is taking place in 2022.
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