Dethreading, chemically controlled

Pseudorotaxanes may be involved in electron transfer processes from three different viewpoints (i) the recognition process between the thread and the macrocycle may result from a charge-transfer interaction, which implies the appearance of characteristic spectroscopic and electrochemical properties (ii) the pseudorotaxane structure can be dethreaded/rethreaded by chemically, electrochemically, and pho-tochemically induced electron transfer processes, which leads to the concept of molecular machines and (iii) dethreading/rethreading of pseudorotaxanes can control the occurrence of charge transfer and electron transfer processes, which offers a route to information processing at the molecular level. 

---