Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
197,768 studies31 sourcesUpdated 29 min ago
Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC 3.0Chemical Science

Controlling the rotary direction of light-driven molecular motors by topological confinement

  • Yongmei Chai1
  • Shuru Tang1
  • Shiqi Ou1
  • Shilong Zhang1
  • Ben L. Feringa1,2
  • Jiawen Chen1
  1. 1SCNU-UG International Joint Laboratory of Molecular Science and Display, South China Normal University Guangzhou 510006 China
  2. 2Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen Groningen The Netherlands
Read full textPDFDOICite

Abstract

Inspired by biological machines, artificial light-driven molecular motors based on overcrowded alkenes have been developed. They can perform repetitive unidirectional rotary motion around the central olefinic bond, triggered by light and heat. However, unlike natural motors, which are sophisticated at tuning their rotary direction, it remains a major challenge to control the rotary direction of manmade motors on demand. Here, we show that by covalently connecting both the upper and lower halves of the molecular motor with ethylene glycols, topological confinement can dictate whether the motor is rotating forward or backward. Experimental data demonstrate that when the length of the macrocycle is short, rotary motion is fully blocked, while a medium-sized chain allows exclusive backward thermal E–Z isomerization instead of the traditional thermal helix inversion step, which enables forward rotation of the motor. With increased ring size, both forward and backward rotary motions are observed. DFT calculations reveal that the length of the chain plays a key role in determining the difference in energy barriers for the two abovementioned competing processes. By taking advantage of the backward rotation of the motor, a complex molecular machine is built, and the shuttling motion of the rotaxane along its axle can be dynamically tuned. These findings represent an important step towards the future design of complex synthetic molecular machines with dynamic functions.

Related

  1. Intrinsically unidirectional stepwise chemically fueled rotary molecular motors
    Yu Zhang, Tianhao Jia, Zheng Dong +3
    Scientific ReportsPeer-reviewedCC BYFull textOrganic chemistryDOAJ
  2. Controlling Spin Filtering through Molecular Length in Helical Aromatic Oligomers
    Rita Borges Anastácio, Anu Gupta, Anil Kumar +6
    ACS Applied Materials & InterfacesPeer-reviewedPublisher termsFull textGeneral chemistryHAL
  3. Morphogenesis and topological evolution of a frustrated nematic liquid crystal under confinement
    Lilian Magermans, Jeongmo Kim, Reinaldo Chacon +4
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of AmericaPeer-reviewedCC BY-NC-ND 4.0Full textMaterials & polymersHAL
  4. Edge Cluster Expansion with Radial Rotary Attention for Interatomic Potentials
    Zemin Xu, Wenbo Xie, P. Hu
    arXiv (Cornell University)PreprintCC BY-NC-NDFull text7 citedMaterials & polymersOpenAlex
  5. Symmetry-Induced Topological Obstructions in Woodward-Hoffmann Forbidden Reactions: A Molecular Qubit Representation.
    Subha Sandeep Repaka, Thillaiarasi Sukumar, Bhagyashri Devaru Bhat +2
    The journal of physical chemistry. APeer-reviewedCC BYFull textOrganic chemistryEurope PMC

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{chai2026controlling,
  title = {{Controlling the rotary direction of light-driven molecular motors by topological confinement}},
  author = {Yongmei Chai and Shuru Tang and Shiqi Ou and Shilong Zhang and Ben L. Feringa and Jiawen Chen},
  journal = {Chemical Science},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1039/d6sc06107a},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sc06107a},
  note = {CC BY-NC 3.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Controlling the rotary direction of light-driven molecular motors by topological confinement
AU  - Yongmei Chai
AU  - Shuru Tang
AU  - Shiqi Ou
AU  - Shilong Zhang
AU  - Ben L. Feringa
AU  - Jiawen Chen
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/10
JO  - Chemical Science
DO  - 10.1039/d6sc06107a
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sc06107a
AB  - Inspired by biological machines, artificial light-driven molecular motors based on overcrowded alkenes have been developed. They can perform repetitive unidirectional rotary motion around the central olefinic bond, triggered by light and heat. However, unlike natural motors, which are sophisticated at tuning their rotary direction, it remains a major challenge to control the rotary direction of manmade motors on demand. Here, we show that by covalently connecting both the upper and lower halves of the molecular motor with ethylene glycols, topological confinement can dictate whether the motor is rotating forward or backward. Experimental data demonstrate that when the length of the macrocycle is short, rotary motion is fully blocked, while a medium-sized chain allows exclusive backward thermal E–Z isomerization instead of the traditional thermal helix inversion step, which enables forward rotation of the motor. With increased ring size, both forward and backward rotary motions are observed. DFT calculations reveal that the length of the chain plays a key role in determining the difference in energy barriers for the two abovementioned competing processes. By taking advantage of the backward rotation of the motor, a complex molecular machine is built, and the shuttling motion of the rotaxane along its axle can be dynamically tuned. These findings represent an important step towards the future design of complex synthetic molecular machines with dynamic functions.
SN  - 2041-6520
SN  - 2041-6539
ER  -