Japanese researchers develop means to convert light into kinetic energy

We just came across a technological breakthrough that would pretty much seem a fantasy and impossible a few decades ago. Converting light energy into kinetic energy hasn’t really been given too much of a thought before. Well, the researchers at the Japanese company RIKEN have just come up with a innovative way of doing the same, using molecules that change their structure when exposed to light. Sandwiched and melted between sheets of Teflon, these molecules coil on exposure to ultraviolet rays. Similar to a muscle movement, the polymer film used Azobenzene that changes its form when exposed to light and UVs.

Skip ahead a few decades into the future, and imagine all the potential this breakthrough could have! All we can think of now is car wheels beginning to spin when exposed to light!

[Inhabitat]