World's Fastest, Smallest, and Longest-Running Nanomotor to Power Future Medical Devices

Researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin say they have built the smallest, fastest, and longest-running tiny synthetic motor to date. The nanomotor can convert electrical energy into mechanical motion on a scale 500 times smaller than a grain of salt, and is an important step toward developing miniature machines that could one day move through the body for controlled biochemical drug delivery to live cells. The three-part nanomotor can rapidly mix and pump biochemicals and move through liquids. With all its dimensions under one micrometer in size, the nanomotor could fit inside a human cell and is capable of rotating for 15 continuous hours at a speed of 18,000 RPMs - the speed of a motor in a jet airplane engine. Comparable nanomotors run significantly more slowly, from 14 RPMs to 500 RPMs, and have only rotated for a few seconds up to a few minutes.

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00:00:12 today cockerel school engineers at the University of Texas at Austin are developing tiny mechanical motors that are so small they can fit inside a human cell these nano motors are bringing sci-fi technologies closer to reality scientists envision nano motors powering tiny devices that can travel through the body to deliver medicine or even target and treat bad cancer cells without

00:00:32 harming good cells to power these yet to be invented nano machines engineers first had to design a reliable nano motor that is 500 times smaller than a grain of salt to meet that challenge dr. Emma fan and her team designed a simple three-part nano motor they used a technique she invented that relies on AC and DC electric fields and magnetic forces to assemble and operate the nano

00:00:57 motor these nano motors can work together in a synchronized fashion making them more powerful the team succeeded in building the smallest fastest and longest-running nano motor to date the team's nano motors rotate as fast as a Jets motor and just as impressive they documented 15 hours of continuous spinning most other nano motors have clocked in at less than a

00:01:20 few minutes of rotation in an experiment they coated the nano motor with bio chemicals they found that the faster the rotor spun the faster the bio chemicals were released this could provide a new controllable approach to drug release in cells looking ahead fan and her team believed their nano motors could revolutionize health care her ultimate goal is to

00:01:41 create tiny robots with moving arms that could seek out diagnose and treat bad cells inside the body