Artificial molecular motors

How to Achieve Unidirectional Rotation in Artificial Molecular Motors ... 

These examples of artificial molecular motors illustrate that a real molecular motor does not yet exist except in nature. Despite all the progress made in this field and... 

Credi A. Artificial molecular motors powered by light. Aust J Chem 2006 59 157-69. 

Dahl BJ, Branchaud BP (2006) 180° unidirectional bond rotation in a biaryl lactone artificial molecular motor prototype. Org Lett 8 5841-5844... 

Balzani, V., Credi, A., Ferrer, B., Silvi, S., Venturi, M., Artificial Molecular Motors and Machines Design Principles and Prototype Systems, Top. Curr. Chem. 2005, 262, 1 28. 

Controlled molecular motion was achieved in several synthetic systems,including DNA machines that use a conformational change of the double helix to develop torque, and propeller-like molecules that can be rotated in a specific direction on a molecular axle by a sequence of chemical transformations. The hybridization and dissociation of DNA strands was also used to make DNA motors that extend and contract like pistons in response to DNA "fuel." One such device, unlike many artificial molecular motors, is capable of free ranning rather than requiring intervention at different points in the duty cycle. ... 

Valero, L. Arias-Pardilla, J. Cauich-Rodrfguez, J. Smit, M. A. Otero, T. R Characterization of the movement of polyp5UTole-dodecylbenzenesulfonate-perchlorate/tape artificial muscles. Faradaic control of reactive artificial molecular motors and muscles. Electrochim. Acta 2011,10, 3721-3726. 

Given the vast nirmber of possible rrseful chemicals, combinatorial approaches to chemical synthesis and testing are proving to be a valtrable way to identify highly functional molectrles. A step beyond this synthesis of individual chemical species is the nano-world of molecular machines, such as artificial molecular motors, which reqtrire the collective interactions of numerous specialized molecules. Bell (this volume) cortsiders major types of natural and artificial molecular motors, with an emphasis on recent research to design energy-efficient molecular subrmits. 

For highest versatility, operating under diverse conditions, artificial molecular motors should have the following properties, in the authors opinion. Artificial motors should be rotary, and operate unidirectionally. 

Many ingenious designs of molecular motors have been reported, including a light-driven family developed by Feringa and cowotkers (18), and chemically-driven prototypes produced by Kelly (19). Included in this chapter is a brief discussion of recent developments in the field of artificial molecular motors, including the authors own design. 

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