A team of German physicists have just created the world’s smallest engine! It’s powered by a single electrically-charged calcium atom. If scaled to size, the new device is claimed to have an equivalent thermodynamic efficiency of an average automobile engine.
Smallest engine (Source: Aban Tech via YouTube)
It is a heat-exchange engine, wherein a single-atom acts as both the fuel and power plant, and is heated by electrical noise and is cooled by laser beam.
Smallest engine (Source: Welt)
In relation to the first and second laws of thermodynamics, heat exchange engines convert thermal energy into mechanical work. In the process of converting heat to mechanical motion, the energy applied to the system is conserved.
Smallest engine (Source: Ultamir)
Similarly, this new nano-engine also goes through the same thermodynamic cycle as the processes that occur in the cylinders of a standard car engine. The only difference is that the power generated is converted into a vibration of the atom and works both as a motor and energy storage
