Researchers at Cambridge University have created the first nano-engine and are now hoping to commercialise the technology.
Researchers at Cambridge University are working with Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the university, to bring their nano-scale engines to market, according to Eurekalert.
The prototype device created by the university uses Van de Waals energy, a weak intermolecular force that holds molecules together, to create a nano-engine, or nano-spring. The process was described in a paper published in the academic journal PNAS.
Made from charged particles of gold held together with temperature-responsive polymers, the molecules can be heated up with a laser causing them to expand. When they cool they spring back into place.
This storing and release of elastic energy can be used to create power centres for possible future nano-machines.
Tao Ding, the paper’s first author who is based in Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory, said: “It is like an explosion. We have hundreds of gold balls flying apart in a millionth of a second when water molecules inflate the polymers around them.
Jeremy Baumberg from the Cavendish Laboratory, who led the research, said: “The whole process is like a nano-spring. The smart part here is we make use of Van de Waals attraction of heavy metal particles to set the springs (polymers) and water molecules to release them, which is very reversible and reproducible.”
Alongside Cambridge Enterprise the researchers are in discussions with several companies with commercialisation in mind.
