DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0509011103. Autonomous artificial nanomotor powered by sunlight

Autonomous artificial nanomotor powered by sunlight

10.1073/pnas.0509011103

Crossref journal-article

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (341)

Abstract

Light excitation powers the reversible shuttling movement of the ring component of a rotaxane between two stations located at a 1.3-nm distance on its dumbbell-shaped component. The photoinduced shuttling movement, which occurs in solution, is based on a “four-stroke” synchronized sequence of electronic and nuclear processes. At room temperature the deactivation time of the high-energy charge-transfer state obtained by light excitation is ≈10 μs, and the time period required for the ring-displacement process is on the order of 100 μs. The rotaxane behaves as an autonomous linear motor and operates with a quantum efficiency up to ≈12%. The investigated system is a unique example of an artificial linear nanomotor because it gathers together the following features: (i) it is powered by visible light (e.g., sunlight); (ii) it exhibits autonomous behavior, like motor proteins; (iii) it does not generate waste products; (iv) its operation can rely only on intramolecular processes, allowing in principle operation at the single-molecule level; (v) it can be driven at a frequency of 1 kHz; (vi) it works in mild environmental conditions (i.e., fluid solution at ambient temperature); and (vii) it is stable for at least 103cycles.

Bibliography

Balzani, V., Clemente-LeÃ³n, M., Credi, A., Ferrer, B., Venturi, M., Flood, A. H., & Stoddart, J. F. (2006). Autonomous artificial nanomotor powered by sunlight. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(5), 1178â1183.

Authors 7

Vincenzo Balzani (first)
Miguel Clemente-León (additional)
Alberto Credi (additional)
Belén Ferrer (additional)
Margherita Venturi (additional)
Amar H. Flood (additional)
J. Fraser Stoddart (additional)

References 31 Referenced 459

Dates

Type	When
Created	19 years, 7 months ago (Jan. 23, 2006, 8:53 p.m.)
Deposited	1 year, 7 months ago (Feb. 2, 2024, 7:07 a.m.)
Indexed	6 days, 9 hours ago (Aug. 30, 2025, 12:31 p.m.)
Issued	19 years, 7 months ago (Jan. 23, 2006)
Published	19 years, 7 months ago (Jan. 23, 2006)
Published Online	19 years, 7 months ago (Jan. 23, 2006)
Published Print	19 years, 7 months ago (Jan. 31, 2006)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Balzani_2006, title={Autonomous artificial nanomotor powered by sunlight}, volume={103}, ISSN={1091-6490}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0509011103}, DOI={10.1073/pnas.0509011103}, number={5}, journal={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, publisher={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, author={Balzani, Vincenzo and Clemente-León, Miguel and Credi, Alberto and Ferrer, Belén and Venturi, Margherita and Flood, Amar H. and Stoddart, J. Fraser}, year={2006}, month=jan, pages={1178–1183} }

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