Scientists simplify molecular motors, removing requirement for complex chemical structures
Researchers have demonstrated that light-driven molecular motors can work without the expensive chiral components previously thought essential. The finding could lower manufacturing costs for nanoscale machines used in drug delivery, industrial catalysis, and next-generation electronics.
Originaltitel: Light-driven rotary molecular motors without point chirality: a minimal design
<p>A fundamental requirement for achieving photoinduced unidirectional rotary motion about an olefinic bond in a molecular motor is that the potential energy surface of the excited state is asymmetric with respect to clockwise and counterclockwise rotations. In most available light-driven rotary molecular motors, such asymmetry is guaranteed by the presence of a stereocenter. Here, we present non-adiabatic molecular dynamics simulations based on multi-configurational quantum chemistry to demonstrate that this chiral feature is not essential for inducing unidirectional rotary motion in molecules that incorporate a cyclohexenylidene moiety into a protonated Schiff-base framework. Rather, the simulations show that it is possible to exploit the intrinsic asymmetry of the puckered cyclohexenylidene to control the direction of photoinduced rotation.</p>