Driving nanocars and nanomachines at interfaces: From concept of nanoarchitectonics to actual use in world wide race and hand operation

Nanomachine and molecular machines are state-of-the-art objects in current physics and chemistry. The operation and manufacturing of nanosize machines are top-level technologies that we have desired to accomplish for a long time. There have been extensive attempts to design and synthesize nanomachines. In this paper, we review the these attempts using the concept of nanoarchitectonics toward the design, synthesis, and testing of molecular machinery, especially at interfacial media. In the first half of this review, various historical attempts to design and prepare nanomachines are introduced as well as their operation mechanisms from their basic principles. Furthermore, in order to emphasize the importance and possibilities of this research field, we also give examples of two new challenging topics in the second half of this review: (i) a world wide nanocar race and (ii) new modes of nanomachine operation on water. The nanocar race event involves actual use of nanomachines and will take place in the near future, and nanomachine operation of a dynamic fluidic interface will enable future advances in nanomachine science and technology. (C) 2016 The Japan Society of Applied Physics