van Vliet Sven, Sheng Jinyu, Stindt Charlotte N, Feringa Ben L
Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
Department of Energy Conversion and Storage, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs, Lyngby, Denmark.
Nat Commun. 2024 Jul 31;15(1):6461. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-50587-4.
Light-driven rotary molecular motors are among the most promising classes of responsive molecular machines and take advantage of their intrinsic chirality which governs unidirectional rotation. As a consequence of their dynamic function, they receive considerable interest in the areas of supramolecular chemistry, asymmetric catalysis and responsive materials. Among the emerging classes of responsive photochromic molecules, multistate first-generation molecular motors driven by benign visible light remain unexplored, which limits the exploitation of the full potential of these mechanical light-powered systems. Herein, we describe a series of all-visible-light-driven first-generation molecular motors based on the salicylidene Schiff base functionality. Remarkable redshifts up to 100 nm in absorption are achieved compared to conventional first-generation motor structures. Taking advantage of all-visible-light-driven multistate motor scaffolds, adaptive behaviour is found as well, and potential application in multistate photoluminescence is demonstrated. These functional visible-light-responsive motors will likely stimulate the design and synthesis of more sophisticated nanomachinery with a myriad of future applications in powering dynamic systems.
光驱动旋转分子马达是最有前景的响应性分子机器之一，它们利用其固有的手性来控制单向旋转。由于其动态功能，它们在超分子化学、不对称催化和响应性材料领域受到了广泛关注。在新兴的响应性光致变色分子类别中，由良性可见光驱动的多态第一代分子马达尚未得到探索，这限制了这些机械光驱动系统全部潜力的开发。在此，我们描述了一系列基于水杨醛席夫碱功能的全可见光驱动第一代分子马达。与传统第一代马达结构相比，吸收光谱实现了高达100纳米的显著红移。利用全可见光驱动的多态马达支架，还发现了自适应行为，并展示了其在多态光致发光中的潜在应用。这些功能性可见光响应马达可能会刺激更复杂纳米机械的设计和合成，在为动态系统提供动力方面有无数未来应用。
