Refining their 2005 nano-car model, Jim Tour and colleagues at Rice University in Houston, have built world’s first molecular engine. The engine measures just just 3 by 4 nanometres, that is a few billionths of a metre long. Unlike the previous model, this one will be able to propel itself - using a motor fuelled entirely by light.The engine comprises bonded carbon molecules which determines the car’s movement on the basis of a specific wavelength of light.
Tour estimates that the car could travel two nanometres per minute but says his team has yet to find a way to watch their molecular automobile in action.
The car could travel two nanometres per minute, but there is just one problem — Tour states:
We think the car would drive along, but we wouldn’t be able to see it and I don’t think people would believe us.
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