Kilohertz Rotation of Nanorods Propelled by Ultrasound, Traced by Microvortex Advection of Nanoparticles

Published

August 26, 2014

Author(s)

Andrew L. Balk, Lamar O. Mair, Pramod Mathai, Paul N. Patrone, Wei Wang, Suzanne Ahmed, Thomas Mallouk, James A. Liddle, Samuel M. Stavis

Abstract

We measure the microvortical flows around gold nanorods propelled by ultrasound in water using polystyrene nanoparticles as optical tracers. We infer the rotational frequencies of such nanomotors assuming a hydrodynamic model of this interaction. In this way, we find that nanomotors rotate around their longitudinal axes at frequencies of up to ≈ 2.5 kHz, or ≈ 150 000 rpm, in the planar pressure node of a half-wavelength layered acoustic resonator driven at ≈ 3 MHz with an acoustic energy density of

Citation

ACS Nano

Volume

8

Issue

8

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/nn502753x

Keywords

acoustic, microvortex, nanomotor, nanoparticle, nanorod, rotation, ultrasonic, ultrasound

Citation

Balk, A. , Mair, L. , Mathai, P. , Patrone, P. , Wang, W. , Ahmed, S. , Mallouk, T. , Liddle, J. and Stavis, S. (2014), Kilohertz Rotation of Nanorods Propelled by Ultrasound, Traced by Microvortex Advection of Nanoparticles, ACS Nano, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/nn502753x (Accessed October 18, 2025)