From Science Daily:
Molecular sized machines could in the future be used to control important mechanisms in the body. In a recent study, researchers at University of California, Berkeley, USA, and Umeå University in northern Sweden show how a nanoballoon comprising a single carbon molecule ten thousand times thinner than a human hair can be controlled electrostatically to switch between an inflated and a collapsed state.
Inflatable balloon actuators are commonly used for macroscopic applications to lift buildings, as impact protection in cars or to widen narrowed or obstructed arteries or veins. At the micro scale they are used as micro pumps and in nature jumping spiders create microformat fluid-filled cushions to power their legs in explosive jumps.
Interestingly, at the nanoscale, balloon actuators are virtually unknown. However, a few years ago researchers at the Penn State University theoretically proposed a charge controlled nanoballoon actuator based on the collapsing and reinflation of a carbon nanotube.
Now, this has been realized experimentally by Hamid Reza Barzegar and his colleagues.
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