Measurement of driving force of catalytic nanomotors in dilute hydrogen peroxide by torsion balance.

A simple torsion balance is designed to directly determine the force generated by catalytic nanomotor nanorods. A 1 cm1 silicon substrate coated with ∼3.1×108 nanomotors was attached to a balancing weight and submerged into different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide. The force generated through the catalytic reaction leads to a measurable torque applied to the torsion balance. The force is on the order of 10-14-10-13 N per individual nanomotor and has a linear concentration dependence with a slope of 4.82×10-14 N per percentage of hydrogen peroxide in agreement with previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]