Molecular propeller

The molecular propellers designed in the group of Prof. Petr Král from the University of Illinois at Chicago have their blades formed by planar aromatic molecules and the shaft is a carbon nanotube.

[3] Molecular dynamics simulations show that these propellers can serve as efficient pumps in the bulk and at the surfaces of liquids.

[7] Nature realizes most biological activities with a large number of highly sophisticated molecular motors, such as myosin, kinesin, and ATP synthase.

[8] For example, rotary molecular motors attached to protein-based tails called flagella can propel bacteria.

[9] Future applications of these nanosystems range from novel analytical tools in physics and chemistry, drug delivery and gene therapy in biology and medicine, advanced nanofluidic lab-on-a-chip techniques, to tiny robots performing various activities at the nanoscale or microscale.