Researchers from The Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Singapore, successfully demonstrated the worlds smallest fully controlled rotation of a molecule-sized gear. The gear, which looks like a wheel, is made out of a hexa-t-butyl-pyrimidopentaphenylbenzene (C64N2H76; HB-NBP) molecule and is connected to the ‘spokes’ of the wheel which are made up of six t-butyl outer groups that lift the central molecule core from the substrate surface. The research opens the way for the future development of molecule-sized machines that may lead to innovations like pocket-sized supercomputers, miniature energy harvesting devices and data computing on atomic scale electronic circuits.
