MOLECULAR MOTOR SPINS ON SURFACE

Abstract

BY ANCHORING A CHIRAL HElical alkene onto a gold nanoparticle, chemists in the Netherlands have created the first light-driven molecular rotary motor attached to a solid surface ( Nature 2005 , 437 , 1337). This mounted molecule, the researchers say, might be a first step toward the construction of more elaborate and functional nanosized mechanical devices and perhaps systems to exploit solar energy. Fastening a rotary molecule to something solid, as Ben L. Feringa and colleagues at the University of Groningen have done, brings these spinning systems closer to becoming useful nanomachines. Putting motors on a surface is important because it should make it easier for them to do useful things, like move themselves or cargo, or change the nature of the surface in response to a stimulus, says T. Ross Kelly, a Boston College chemistry professor who made a molecular motor that runs on chemical fuel. Feringa's team uses two thiol groups to affix their molecular motor to ...