Synthetic molecular motors & machines

分子水平的运动在关键的自然过程中的广泛应用表明，弥合当代合成分子系统与宏观世界的机器之间的差距可能会带来巨大的回报，目前的合成分子系统主要依靠电子和化学效应来实现其功能，宏观世界的机器利用较小部件的同步运动来执行特定任务。近年来，已经证明有可能设计合成分子系统，其中亚分子组分的位置变化通过向下运动而发生，但这一领域的许多问题仍然没有答案：我们如何将机械分子水平运动的影响外推到外部世界？分子利用定向位移做功所必需的结构特征是什么？我们怎样才能制造出一台合成分子机器，使其逆着梯度泵送离子，或者使其自身沿着沿着轨道向上运动？能够做到这些事情的人工化合物还没有实现：合成分子机器领域仍然处于起步阶段，迄今为止只制造了最基本的系统-机械开关和稍微复杂但仍然初级的分子转子。该建议旨在通过研究如何控制分子水平运动的各个方面来解决这些基本问题。

The widespread use of molecular-level motion in key natural processes sum that great rewards could cone from bridging the gap between the present generation of synthetic molecular systems - which by and large rely upon electronic and chemical effects to carry out their functions - and the machines of the macroscopic world, which utilize the synchronized movements of smaller parts to perform particular tasks. In recent years it has proved possible to design synthetic molecular systems where positional changes of submolecular components occur by moving energetically downhill but many questions in this field retrain unanswered: How do we extrapolate the effects of mechanical molecular level motion to the outside world? What are the structural features necessary for molecules to use directional displacement to do work? How can we make a synthetic molecular machine that pumps ions against a gradient or moves itself energetically uphill along a track? Artificial compounds that can do these things have yet to be realized: the field of synthetic molecular machines is still very much in its infancy and only the most basic systems - mechanical switches and slightly more sophisticated, but still rudimentary, molecular rotors - have been made thus far. This proposal seeks to address These fundamental questions by examining how to control various facets of molecular level motion.