Simplicity in the Design, Operation, and Applications of Mechanically Interlocked Molecular Machines

Abstract

Mechanically interlocked molecules are perhaps best known as components of molecular machines, a view further reinforced by the Nobel Prize in 2016 to Stoddart and Sauvage. Despite amazing progress since these pioneers of the field reported the first examples of molecular shuttles, genuine applications of interlocked molecular machines remain elusive, and many barriers remain to be overcome before such molecular devices make the transition from impressive prototypes on the laboratory bench to useful products. Here, we discuss simplicity as a design principle that could be applied in the development of the next generation of molecular machines with a view to moving toward real-world applications of these intriguing systems in the longer term.

Cucurbiturils brighten Au nanoclusters in water

“…Host-guest self-assembly, typically the encapsulation behavior between small motifs and macrocycle molecules bearing cavities with a certain size, has received extensive attention in molecular recognition and stimuli-responsive systems. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Remarkably, driven by multiple non-covalent interactions such as ion-dipole, hydrophobic and H-bonding effects, macrocyclic cucurbit[n]urils (CB[n], n ¼ 5-8, typically) exhibit a robust binding strength with elaborately tailored guests to form stable binary and ternary host-guest complexes in aqueous solutions. 9,10 In the past two decades, the advancements in CB[n]based host-guest self-assembly have greatly facilitated the design of functional materials ranging from single molecules to various nanostructures.…”

Advances in applied supramolecular technologies

“…192 Due to the popularity of these systems, multiple comprehensive reviews have been published on the synthesis, properties and potential applications of these compounds. [192][193][194] An example highlighting the application of polyrotaxanes in the production of supramolecular self-healing materials is provided by Harada and co-workers, Fig. 30.…”

Site-to-site peptide transport on a molecular platform using a small-molecule robotic arm

“…Programable DNA devices [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] include examples that combine building blocks in a defined sequence [11][12][13][14][15] or move gold nanoparticles 16 . Small-molecule artificial molecular machines [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] have been developed that can transport macroscopic droplets along a surface 24 and perform other mechanical tasks, [25][26][27][28][29] and that can carry out sequence-specific [30][31][32][33] and programable [34][35][36][37][38][39][40] chemical synthesis. Here we demonstrate that a molecular 'robotic arm' [40][41][42] can be programed to transport cysteine-containing peptide derivatives, rapidly and with good efficiency in either direction, between two chemically similar sites 2 nm apart on a molecular platform.…”