SGER: A Surface-Mounted Molecular Turbine

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Professor Josef Michl of the University of Colorado at Boulder is supported with a Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) from the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program to study the possibility of utilizing molecular-scale turbines to move liquids on a nanoscopic spatial scale. The idea is to tether a propeller-like molecule to a surface and to measure the motion of the propeller using polarized fluorescence as a probe as gas or liquid is flowed over the surface. The challenge is to get the propeller to move unidirectionally. The molecule will be a modified diethynyltriptycene. The next step is to use light pulses to drive the molecular turbines. The molecules could act as pumps, with applications in analytical chemistry, separations science and biochemistry.