From nano-movement to macro-work

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Helicies are found at every level of biology and are used by biology to perform many important functions. Here we want to design artificial materials that are capable of making mechanical movements observed in plants. These movements include spring-like functionality, unwinding and helical inversion. The materials will operate by light driven nano-scopic movements, which will then be translated into an overall shape in the material. We will use these shape changes to do mechanical work. There is currently no clear knowledge as to how to convert light driven nano-scale movement into macroscopic work and so this research will lay important groundwork. The ultimate aim of this research is not just to reproduce the movements observed in nature, but more importantly to use the lessons in the design and testing process to establish fundamental rules for how molecular scale movement can be translated to the macroscopic scale, and how this behaviour can be tuned rationally. These results may find applications in the development of new energy conversion or storage devices. Other potential applications include micro-mechanical, fluidic and robotic systems as well as sensors, mechanical muscles and materials capable of moulding the flow of light.