Nanodumbbell

A nanodumbell is a pair of spheres attached together that may be made of silica or zinc oxide.[1]

Illustration of nanodumbbells spinning in a vacuum

They have been used in a Purdue University experiment where they were made to spin in a vacuum at 60 billion rotations per minute.[2]

Description

The nanodumbbells are first created in the lab using a hydro-thermal process. The resulting dumbbell consists of two joined silica spheres, making it 320 nanometers long and around 170 nanometers wide in size.[2]

Nanodumbbells are also being studied for possible use in photodynamic therapy, a way of treating cancer.[3]

Experiment

Highly focused circularly polarized light laser light bombards the levitated dumbbell to set it spinning.[2]

Previous records

The speed of the rotation is a world record that beats previous records. In 2008, a small motor rotated at 1 million rotations per minute. In 2010, a slice of graphene was made to spin at 60 million spins per minute. Around 2013, a sphere measuring just 4 micrometers was spun at 600 million spins per minute.[2]

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References
  1. Dixit, Tejendra; Palani, I. A; Singh, Vipul (2014). "Investigation on the influence of dichromate ion on the ZnO nano-dumbbells and ZnCr2O4 nano-walls". Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics. 26 (2): 821–829. doi:10.1007/s10854-014-2470-5.
  2. "What in the Whirled? Tiny, Floating Dumbbell Rotates 60 Billion Times Per Minute". Live Science. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  3. Hou, Beibei; Zheng, Bin; Yang, Weitao; Dong, Chunhong; Wang, Hanjie; Chang, Jin (2017). "Construction of near infrared light triggered nanodumbbell for cancer photodynamic therapy". Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. 494: 363–372. doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2017.01.053. PMID 28167424.
  • Image of the dumbbells
  • Eadi, Sunil Babu; Kim, Sungjin; Jeong, Soon Wook (2017). "Effect of Surfactant on Growth of ZnO Nanodumbbells and Their Characterization". Journal of Chemistry. 2017: 1–7. doi:10.1155/2017/1728345.
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