Nanotech publication names Rice chemist Innovator of the Year

Nanotech publication names Rice chemist Innovator of the Year

BY JADE BOYD
Rice News staff

Rice University chemist and nanocar inventor James Tour has been selected Innovator of the Year in Small Times magazine’s Best of Small Tech Research Award competition. The awards recognize the best people, products and companies in nanotechnology, microelectromechanical systems and microsystems.

Tour, the Chao Professor of Chemistry, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and professor of computer science, has also been awarded a coveted Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society.

Small Times recognized Tour, director of the Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory in Rice’s Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, for his pioneering research in molecular self-assembly, including the development of single-molecule nanocars.

Tour’s group unveiled its ultrasmall nanocars last October. Measuring just 3-by-4 nanometers, nanocars have four wheels, a rigid chassis and axles that spin freely and swivel independently of one another. About 20,000 nanocars can be parked side-by-side across the diameter of a human hair. The nanocars were imaged in rolling action in collaboration with Tour’s colleague Kevin Kelly, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.

In announcing the award, Small Times said Tour “is bringing molecular self-assembly to the point of commercial reality. His nanocar is a practical example of molecular manipulation, and his group is hard at work on more sophisticated machines.”

Tour designed nanocars as a test system for new methods of molecular self-assembly. During the past year, his research team has extended the original concept, rolling out a motorized nanocar; a nanotruck with a cargo bay; a six-wheeled, three-axled NanoCaterpillar; a nanotrain; a nanobackhoe, complete with flexible extension arm; and an ultrasmall version of the nanocar, dubbed “the NanoCooper.” They are currently working on a high-performance version of the motorized nanocar that contains twin solar-powered motors.

“We want to build things from the bottom-up, one molecule at a time, and in order to do that, we need to transport molecules from place to place,” Tour said. “Just as cells use enzymes to assemble proteins and large molecules, we want to design synthetic transporters that are capable of doing much the same thing in nonbiological environments.”

The recipients of the Small Times Magazine Best of Small Tech Awards and runners-up were selected from among nominations and applications submitted by companies and individuals. Small Times Media news staff and an industry panel of experts reviewed the applicants and selected one winner and four runners-up in six categories, plus one lifetime-achievement honoree. A complete list of winners and runners-up will be published in the November/December issue of Small Times magazine and online at <www.smalltimes.com>.

The ACS’s Cope Scholar Awards recognize and encourage excellence in organic chemistry.

Only 10 of the awards are given annually. Sponsored by the Arthur C. Cope Fund, the award consists of $5,000, as well as a $40,000 unrestricted
research grant.