Great Energy Savings For Small Machines

Physicists represent for the first time a strategy to manipulate the billions of small molecular nanomachines within us that work for keeping us alive, for maximizing efficiency and conserving energy. The breakthrough could impact many fields, including the creation of more efficient computer chips and solar cells for power generation.

In an innovative study, a team led by SFU physics professor David Sivak demonstrated for the first time a strategy to manipulate these machines to maximize efficiency and save energy. The advance could have ramifications in several fields, including the creation of computer chips and more efficient solar cells for the generation of energy.

The nanomachines are small, very small: in fact, a few billionths of a meter in width. They are also quick and able to perform complex tasks: everything from moving materials around a cell, building and decomposing molecules, and processing and expressing genetic information.

The machines can perform these tasks while consuming a remarkably small energy, so a theory that predicts energy efficiency helps us understand how these microscopic machines work and what fails when they break down, says Sivak.

In the laboratory, Sivak's experimental collaborators manipulated a DNA fork, whose folding and deployment mimics the mechanical movement of more complicated molecular machines. As predicted by Sivak's theory, they found that maximum efficiency and minimal energy loss occurred if they pulled quickly on the fork when it was bent, but slowly when it was about to deploy.

Steven Large, a graduate student in physics at SFU and co-first author of the article, explains that the DNA forks (and nanomachines) are so small and flexible that they are constantly pushed by violent collisions with the surrounding molecules.

"Letting the push unfold the fork is a saving of energy and time," says Large.

Sivak thinks that the next step is to apply the theory to learn how to drive a molecular machine through its operating cycle, while reducing the energy required to do so.

So, what is the benefit of making nanomachines more efficient? Sivak says potential applications could change the game in a variety of areas.

"The uses could include the design of computer chips and more efficient computer memory (reducing the energy requirements and the heat they emit), making better renewable energy materials for processes such as artificial photosynthesis (increasing the energy collected from the sun) and improving the autonomy of biomolecular machines for biotechnological applications such as the delivery of medicines ".

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190522153133.htm