New Propulsion Method Developed for Metallic Micro And Nano-Objects

A new propulsion method for metallic micro- and nano-objects has been developed by researchers from the Institute of Molecular Sciences (Institut des sciences moléculaires, CNRS/ENSCBP/Universités Bordeaux 1 and 4). The process is based on the novel concept of bipolar electrochemistry: under the influence of an electric field, one end of a metallic object grows while the other end dissolves. Thanks to this permanent self-regeneration, objects can move at speeds of the order of a hundred micrometers per second.