Complex molecular machinery may be envisioned as densely packed, multicomponent, self-assembling systems built with high structural precision to control the dynamics of one or more internal degrees of freedom. With molecular gyroscopes as a test, we describe a general strategy to design crystals capable of supporting structurally programmed molecular motions, a practical approach to their synthesis, convenient strategies to characterize their solid-state dynamics, and potential applications based on polar structures responding collectively to external fields.
We have developed a simple convergent procedure for the synthesis of molecular rotors consisting of a central aromatic group coupled with two axially positioned ethynyltriptycenes. Molecular rotors with 1,4-phenylene (1), 1,4'-1,1'-biphenylene (2), 9,10-anthracenylene (3), and 2,7-pyrenylene (4) groups were prepared by Pd(0)-catalyzed coupling of ethynyl triptycenes with the corresponding dibromoarenes. Although compounds 1-4 were not expected to have free rotation in the solid state, the rotational potentials of 1 and 3 were analyzed by semiempirical methods and the crystal packing of 1 was analyzed to design the structures most likely to yield a functional rotor in the solid state. Semiempirical PM3 calculations predict compounds 1, 2, and 4 to have frictionless internal rotation even at temperatures as low as 25 K, while compound 3 is expected to have a barrier of ca. 4 kcal/mol.
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