Pennsylvania State University chemists have built micro/nanofluidic pumps that transduce energy catalytically.

The catalytic conversion of chemical to mechanical energy is ubiquitous in biology, powering such important and diverse processes as cell division, skeletal muscle movement, protein synthesis, and transport of cargo within cells.

The chemists have demonstrated that one can build nanomotors from scratch that mimic biological motors by using catalytic reactions to create forces based on chemical gradients. These motors are autonomous–they do not require external electric, magnetic, or optical fields as energy sources. Instead, the input energy is supplied locally and chemically.