title: Measurement of driving force of catalytic nanomotors in dilute hydrogen peroxide by torsion balance.
abstract: A simple torsion balance is designed to directly determine the force generated by catalytic nanomotor nanorods. A 1 cm1 silicon substrate coated with approximately 3.1 x 10(8) nanomotors was attached to a balancing weight and submerged into different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide. The force generated through the catalytic reaction leads to a measurable torque applied to the torsion balance. The force is on the order of 10(-14)-10(-13) N per individual nanomotor and has a linear concentration dependence with a slope of 4.82 x 10(-14) N per percentage of hydrogen peroxide in agreement with previous studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA. jggibbs@uga.edu
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Gibbs
authors.forename: Y-P
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D004867:Equipment Design; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D055585:Physical Phenomena; D010984:Platinum / Q000737:chemistry; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry; D019415:Torque
chemical_list: D010984:Platinum; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D012825:Silicon