Atomic Scale Control in Driving a Dipolar Supramolecular Nanocar

The ability to control the nanoscale structure at the atomic level is important for the advancement of nanotechnology. We have developed a molecular vehicle that can be driven on materials surfaces by an electric field applied from a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip. Our nano-vehicle dubbed "Bobcat Nanowagon" is composed of an H shape frame with four Cucurbit[7]uril wheels attached. We used our nano vehicle to enter the first international nanocar race held in France on 29 April 2017. The nano vehicles were deposited onto atomically clean Au(111) surface across the Au(111) surface at 5 K substrate temperature. Moreover, we have competed the nanocar race by manipulating the STM remotely from France. This was the first time demonstration of atomic scale manipulation from one quarter of the globe distance, i.e. across Atlantic, and thus it was considered to be the world record. The nano vehicles can be driven by both electric field polarity. From the manipulation experiments, we determine the energy required to operate the nano vehicles as 800 meV.