{
  "abstract": "Mechanochemistry, long promoted as a sustainable route to chemical synthesis, remains difficult to apply predictably to complex reactions due to a limited atomic-level understanding of how mechanical energy drives reactivity. Here, we demonstrated how piezoelectric polarization in tetragonal BaTiO3 directs solid-state mechanoredox chemistry, enabling electrode-free, reductant-free and solvent-free synthesis, for forming complex mechanically interlocked molecules for the first time. During ball milling, mechanically activated tetragonal BaTiO3 nanoparticles generate spatially separated redox sites that reduce viologen building blocks, promoting radical-pairing-driven pseudorotaxane formation and subsequent formation of stable [2] rotaxanes. First-principles calculations on BaTiO3 identify shear deformation as the dominant mechanical stimulus, where strain-induced polarization field produces an energetically favorable surface potential for the coupled redox reactions. These findings for the first time establish a direct mechanistic link between mechanical deformation, piezoelectric polarization, and mechanical bond formation, providing a predictive framework for sustainably constructing complex mechanically interlocked molecular architectures through piezoelectricity-mediated mechanochemistry.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois, 60208",
    "Theoretical Sciences Unit, and School of Advanced Materials and International Centre for Materials Science",
    "Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR",
    "School of Chemistry",
    "University of New South Wales",
    "Department of Chemistry",
    "University of Wyoming",
    "Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oklahoma, 101 Stephenson Parkway, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019",
    "Department of Chemistry, Dartmouth College, 6128 Burke Laboratory, Hanover, New Hampshire, 03755",
    "Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad",
    "Department of Chemistry, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR, China, 999077",
    "Stoddart Institute of Molecular Science, Department of Chemistry",
    "Zhejiang University",
    "ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 17,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Surojit Bhunia",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-7581-3610"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Pramita Kundu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Long Zhang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Sudipto Sinha"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Partha J Das"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Guangcheng Wu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Christopher K Lee"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "James SW Seale"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Hongliang Chen"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Xuesong Li"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Zhenwei Wu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Dong Jun Kim"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "Yuanning Feng"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        8
      ],
      "name": "Ivan Aprahamian"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Umesh V. Waghmare"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        9
      ],
      "name": "C Malla Reddy"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        4,
        10,
        11,
        12,
        13
      ],
      "name": "J. Fraser Stoddart"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1b8s903qa4hgt.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.26434/chemrxiv.15009746/v1",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "1b8s903qa4hgt",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009746/v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "1605|Supramolecular Chemistry and Complexes"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7215104912",
  "pdf_url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/pdf/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009746/v1",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": "American Chemical Society (ACS)",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1b8s903qa4hgt.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:21Z",
      "native_id": "10.26434/chemrxiv.15009746",
      "source": "chemrxiv",
      "url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009746/v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "chemistry",
      "origin": "openalex:1605|Supramolecular Chemistry and Complexes",
      "subfield": "organic"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Piezoelectricity-Induced Mechanical Bond Formation in Solid-state Using Mechanochemistry",
  "title_text": "Piezoelectricity-Induced Mechanical Bond Formation in Solid-state Using Mechanochemistry",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:21Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1b8s903qa4hgt",
  "venue": "ChemRxiv",
  "versions": []
}