Chemistry Project 2009
ECoS Faculty: Tom Mallouk and Jackie Bortiatynski
ECoS Graduate Student Mentors: Camden Henderson and Anna Lee
Catalytic Nanomotors
Catalytic motors are “engines” that convert chemical energy to
mechanical energy. They are interesting because they can potentially be
used as the moving parts of microscale machines, and also because they
mimic the way in which biological motors work. Catalytic nanomotors
were invented at Penn State in 2004 and are now being investigated at
many other universities. In this experiment, you will use
electrochemistry to make catalytic wires that are a few microns long
and hundreds of nanometers wide, and you will observe their movement
under the microscope in solutions containing hydrogen peroxide “fuel.”
You will also use different fabrication procedures to make linear and
rotary motors.
Catalysts speed up chemical reactions by providing a new pathway for
the reactants (in this case hydrogen peroxide) to turn into to products
(oxygen and water). An important part of understanding a catalytic
reaction is to measure the rate, which you will do in this experiment
by gas chromatography. You will learn how the reaction rate varies as a
function of the concentration of the reactant and the amount of the
catalyst. You will correlate the reaction rate to the speed of your
nanomotors, to verify that the movement is driven by the reaction.