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Science 24 November 2000:
Vol. 290. no. 5496, p. 1520
DOI: 10.1126/science.290.5496.1520
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Perspectives

SURFACE SCIENCE:
How to Power a Nanomotor

Flemming Besenbacher and Jens K. Nørskov

A successful nanotechnology will require nanomotors that can perform functions from switches to pumps and actuators. In their Perspective, Besenbacher and Nørskov discuss the study by Schmid et al., who show that tin islands on a copper surfaces propel themselves forward on the surface, drawing energy from alloy formation with the surface below. The system has about the same power-to-weight ratio as a car and may provide a paradigm for future nanomotors.

F. Besenbacher is at the Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. E-mail: fbe{at}ifa.au.dk J. K. Nørskov is in the Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark. E-mail: norskov{at}fysik.dtu.dk. Both are associated with the Center for Atomic-Scale Materials Physics.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)