Ultrasmall nanomotors (<100 nm)
are highly desirable nanomachines
for their size-specific advantages over their larger counterparts
in applications spanning nanomedicine, directed assembly, active sensing,
and environmental remediation. While there are extensive studies on
motors larger than 100 nm, the design and understanding of ultrasmall
nanomotors have been scant due to the lack of high-resolution imaging
of their propelled motions with orientation and shape details resolved.
Here, we report the imaging of the propelled motions of catalytically
powered ultrasmall nanomotorshundreds of themat the
nanometer resolution using liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy.
These nanomotors are Pt nanoparticles of asymmetric shapes (“tadpoles”
and “boomerangs”), which are colloidally synthesized
and observed to be fueled by the catalyzed decomposition of NaBH4 in solution. Statistical analysis of the orientation and
position trajectories of fueled and unfueled motors, coupled with
finite element simulation, reveals that the shape asymmetry alone
is sufficient to induce local chemical concentration gradient and
self-diffusiophoresis to act against random Brownian motion. Our work
elucidates the colloidal design and fundamental forces involved in
the motions of ultrasmall nanomotors, which hold promise as active
nanomachines to perform tasks in confined environments such as drug
delivery and chemical sensing.