Nano car has molecular 4-wheel drive: Smallest electric car in the world

 Reduced to the max: the emission-free, noiseless 4-wheel drive car, jointly developed by Empa researchers and their Dutch colleagues, represents lightweight construction at its most extreme. The nano car consists of just a single molecule and travels on four electrically-driven wheels in an almost straight line over a copper surface. The "prototype" can be admired on the cover of the latest edition of Nature.

To carry out mechanical work, one usually turns to engines, which transform chemical, thermal or electrical energy into kinetic energy in order to, say, transport goods from A to B. Nature does the same thing; in cells, so-called motor proteins -- such as kinesin and the muscle protein actin -- carry out this task. Usually they glide along other proteins, similar to a train on rails, and in the process "burn" ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the chemical fuel, so to speak, of the living world.

A number of chemists aim to use similar principles and concepts to design molecular transport machines, which could then carry out specific tasks on the nano scale. According to an article in the latest edition of science magazine "Nature," scientists at the University of Groningen and at Empa have successfully taken "a decisive step on the road to artificial nano-scale transport systems." They have synthesised a molecule from four rotating motor units, i.e. wheels, which can travel straight ahead in a controlled manner. "To do this, our car needs neither rails nor petrol; it runs on electricity. It must be the smallest electric car in the world -- and it even comes with 4-wheel drive" comments Empa researcher Karl-Heinz Ernst.

Range per tank of fuel: still room for improvement

The downside: the small car, which measures approximately 4x2 nanometres -- about one billion times smaller than a VW Golf -- needs to be refuelled with electricity after every half revolution of the wheels -- via the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM). Furthermore, due to their molecular design, the wheels can only turn in one direction. "In other words: there's no reverse gear," says Ernst, who is also a professor at the University of Zurich, laconically.

According to its "construction plan" the drive of the complex organic molecule functions as follows: after sublimating it onto a copper surface and positioning an STM tip over it leaving a reasonable gap, Ernst's colleague, Manfred Parschau, applied a voltage of at least 500 mV. Now electrons should "tunnel" through the molecule, thereby triggering reversible structural changes in each of the four motor units. It begins with a cis-trans isomerisation taking place at a double bond, a kind of rearrangement -- in an extremely unfavourable position in spatial terms, though, in which large side groups fight for space. As a result, the two side groups tilt to get past each other and end up back in their energetically more favourable original position -- the wheel has completed a half turn. If all four wheels turn at the same time, the car should travel forwards. At least, according to theory based on the molecular structure.

To drive or not to drive -- a simple question of orientation

And this is what Ernst and Parschau observed: after ten STM stimulations, the molecule had moved six nanometres forwards -- in a more or less straight line. "The deviations from the predicted trajectory result from the fact that it is not at all a trivial matter to stimulate all four motor units at the same time," explains "test driver" Ernst.

Another experiment showed that the molecule really does behave as predicted. A part of the molecule can rotate freely around the central axis, a C-C single bond -- the chassis of the car, so to speak. It can therefore "land" on the copper surface in two different orientations: in the right one, in which all four wheels turn in the same direction, and in the wrong one, in which the rear axle wheels turn forwards but the front ones turn backwards -- upon excitation the car remains at a standstill. Ernst und Parschau were able to observe this, too, with the STM.

Therefore, the researchers have achieved their first objective, a "proof of concept," i.e. they have been able to demonstrate that individual molecules can absorb external electrical energy and transform it into targeted motion. The next step envisioned by Ernst and his colleagues is to develop molecules that can be driven by light, perhaps in the form of UV lasers.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Empa.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Tibor Kudernac, Nopporn Ruangsupapichat, Manfred Parschau, Beatriz Maciá, Nathalie Katsonis, Syuzanna R. Harutyunyan, Karl-Heinz Ernst, Ben L. Feringa. Electrically driven directional motion of a four-wheeled molecule on a metal surface. Nature, 2011; 479 (7372): 208 DOI: 10.1038/nature10587

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

The drive toward hydrogen vehicles just got shorter

Researchers have revealed a new single-stage method for recharging the hydrogen storage compound ammonia borane. The breakthrough makes hydrogen a more attractive fuel for vehicles and other transportation modes.

In an article appearing recently in the journal Science, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and University of Alabama researchers working within the U.S. Department of Energy's Chemical Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence describe a significant advance in hydrogen storage science.

Hydrogen is in many ways an ideal fuel. It possesses a high energy content per unit mass when compared to petroleum, and it can be used to run a fuel cell, which in turn can be used to power a very clean engine. On the down side, H2 has a low energy content per unit volume versus petroleum (it is very light and bulky). The crux of the hydrogen issue has been how to get enough of the element on board a vehicle to power it a reasonable distance.

Work at LANL and elsewhere has focused on chemical hydrides for storing hydrogen, with one material in particular, ammonia borane, taking center stage. Ammonia borane is attractive because its hydrogen storage capacity approaches a whopping 20 percent by weight -- enough that it should, with appropriate engineering, permit hydrogen-fueled vehicles to go farther than 300 miles on a single "tank," a benchmark set by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Hydrogen release from ammonia borane has been well demonstrated, and its chief drawback to use has been the lack of energy-efficient methods to reintroduce hydrogen into the spent fuel once burned. In other words, until now, after hydrogen release, the ammonia borane couldn't be recycled efficiently enough.

The Science paper describes a simple scheme that regenerates ammonia borane from a hydrogen depleted "spent fuel" form (called polyborazylene) back into usable fuel via reactions taking place in a single container. This "one pot" method represents a significant step toward the practical use of hydrogen in vehicles by potentially reducing the expense and complexity of the recycle stage. Regeneration takes place in a sealed pressure vessel using hydrazine and liquid ammonia at 40 degrees Celsius and necessarily takes place off-board a vehicle. The researchers envision vehicles with interchangeable hydrogen storage "tanks " containing ammonia borane that are used, and sent back to a factory for recharge.

The Chemical Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence was one of three Center efforts funded by DOE. The other two focused on hydrogen sorption technologies and storage in metal hydrides. The Center of Excellence was a collaboration between Los Alamos, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and academic and industrial partners.

LANL researcher Dr. John Gordon, a corresponding author for the paper, credits collaboration encouraged by the Center model with the breakthrough.

"Crucial predictive calculations carried out by University of Alabama Professor Dave Dixon's group guided the experimental work of the Los Alamos team, which included researchers from both the Chemistry Division and the Materials Physics and Applications Division at LANL," Gordon said.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations) from materials provided by DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Journal Reference:

A. D. Sutton, A. K. Burrell, D. A. Dixon, E. B. Garner, J. C. Gordon, T. Nakagawa, K. C. Ott, J. P. Robinson, M. Vasiliu. Regeneration of Ammonia Borane Spent Fuel by Direct Reaction with Hydrazine and Liquid Ammonia. Science, 2011; 331 (6023): 1426 DOI: 10.1126/science.1199003