An electric molecular motor

Zhang, Long; Qiu, Yunyan; Liu, Wei-Guang; Chen, Hongliang; Shen, Dengke; Song, Bo; Cai, Kang; Wu, Huang; Jiao, Yang; Feng, Yuanning; Seale, James S W; Pezzato, Cristian; Tian, Jia; Tan, Yu; Chen, Xiao-Yang; Guo, Qing-Hui; Stern, Charlotte L; Philp, Douglas; Astumian, R Dean; Goddard, William A; Stoddart, J Fraser

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Date

12/01/2023

Keywords

QD Chemistry

DAS

MCC

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Abstract

Macroscopic electric motors continue to have a large impact on almost every aspect of modern society. Consequently, the effort towards developing molecular motors that can be driven by electricity could not be more timely. Here we describe an electric molecular motor based on a [3]catenane , in which two cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene) (CBPQT4+) rings are powered by electricity in solution to circumrotate unidirectionally around a 50-membered loop. The constitution of the loop ensures that both rings undergo highly (85%) unidirectional movement under the guidance of a flashing energy ratchet , whereas the interactions between the two rings give rise to a two-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) similar to that shown by F0F1ATP synthase . The unidirectionality is powered by an oscillating voltage or external modulation of the redox potential . Initially, we focused our attention on the homologous [2]catenane, only to find that the kinetic asymmetry was insufficient to support unidirectional movement of the sole ring. Accordingly, we incorporated a second CBPQT4+ ring to provide further symmetry breaking by interactions between the two mobile rings. This demonstration of electrically driven continual circumrotatory motion of two rings around a loop in a [3]catenane is free from the production of waste products and represents an important step towards surface-bound electric molecular motors.

Citation

Zhang , L , Qiu , Y , Liu , W-G , Chen , H , Shen , D , Song , B , Cai , K , Wu , H , Jiao , Y , Feng , Y , Seale , J S W , Pezzato , C , Tian , J , Tan , Y , Chen , X-Y , Guo , Q-H , Stern , C L , Philp , D , Astumian , R D , Goddard , W A & Stoddart , J F 2023 , ' An electric molecular motor ' , Nature , vol. 613 , no. 7943 , pp. 280-286 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05421-6 , https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05421-6

Publication

Nature

Status

Peer reviewed

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05421-6

ISSN

0028-0836

Type

Journal article

Rights

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Description

Funding: The computational investigations at California Institute of Technology were supported by National Science Foundation grant no. CBET-2005250 (W.-G.L. and W.A.G.).