All That Matters

Photo by anttler via flickr

Designing organic molecules that perform repeated mechanical motions is not easy. The molecule needs to be robust on the one hand, and on the other hand have different stable states between which it can alternate. Achieving such complex functionality requires careful design considerations. Nature has solved this problem, and molecular motors perform important functions in living organisms, for example in enzymes.

The design and synthesis of artificial mechanical molecules performing specific functions remains a challenge. For example, molecular rotors have been fabricated before, but only showed limited functionality: their direction of rotation could not be reversed. […]