MOLECULAR MOTOR

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DESCRIPTION: Motion is central and essential to life. During the past several decades enormous effort has been invested in attempting to learn how biological motors such as muscles, flagella and cilia operate. But even now there is little understanding, at least at the atomic level of detail, how chemically powered motors achieve directed motion. The PI now proposes to construct a molecular motor that may provide some insight into how biological and other molecular scaled motors work. The motor will operate as a single molecule and is powered by coupling unidirectional molecular movement with the energy released in the hydrolysis of phosgene to carbon dioxide and HCl. The project will entail synthesis and evaluation at several levels of complexity, starting with a demonstration of principle stage and culminating in a fully functioning version, with feedback at each step serving to refine the design of the next stage. The project should expand the understanding of chemically directed and controlled movement, which is a topic central to the understanding of biological systems.