Incorporating Mechanically Interlocked Molecules into Solid State Materials

化学家知道如何合成纳米级开关和机器，这些开关和机器由机械连接（即环互锁形成链的方式）的分子组成。然而，这些精细的分子仅在分子随机分散且运动不连贯的溶液中起作用。如果这些极其微小的设备能够以可预测和有序的方式组织起来，那么创造基于超密度分子的存储器或在分子水平上控制材料的电子特性的想法将更加接近实现。实现更高水平的分子组织和相干性的一种方式是将经历运动（例如旋转或平移）的软且动态的分子组分组织到固态材料的孔中。我们的研究小组最近完成了这种原型材料的制备及其在固态下的内部动力学演示（2012年6月，《自然化学》封面）。这一发现为固态材料中分子开关和分子机器的组织提供了路线图，也是这项研究计划的基础。 我们将继续开发生产这种新材料的方法，并研究它们的特性和潜在应用。特别地，（a）铁电体和（B）光学性质，因为这些取决于固体中分子组分的排序和排列，以及（c）气体储存潜力，因为添加具有大表面积的软组分可以增强在环境温度下实现氢气储存所需的非常弱的相互作用。 将移动的和功能性分子组分排列成高密度和可预测的阵列的能力是基于使用分子组分的自下而上制造的纳米级固态器件的产生的关键一步。

Chemists know how to synthesize nanoscale switches and machines that are comprised of molecules held together by mechanical linkages (i.e. the way that rings are interlocked to make a chain). However, these elaborate molecules only function in solution where the molecules are randomly dispersed and their motion incoherent. If these extremely tiny devices could be organized in a predictable and orderly manner, the ideas of creating ultra-dense molecular-based memory or controlling electronic properties of materials at the molecular level would be very much closer to realization. One way to achieve a higher level of molecular organization and coherency would be to organize the soft and dynamic molecular components that undergo motion (e.g. rotation or translation) into the pores of a solid state material. The preparation of such a prototype material and demonstration of its internal dynamics in the solid state has recently been achieved by our research group (June 2012, front cover of Nature Chemistry). This discovery provides a roadmap for the organization of molecular switches and molecular machines in solid state materials and is the basis of this research proposal. We will continue to develop methodologies for producing this new class of material and we will investigate their properties and potential applications. In particular, (a) ferroelectrics and (b) optical properties, as these are dependent on ordering and arrangement of molecular components in solids as well as (c) gas storage potential, since the addition of soft components with large surface area may enhance the very weak interactions required to achieve hydrogen gas storage at ambient temperature. The ability to arrange mobile and functional molecular components in a highly dense and predictable array is a crucial step towards the generation of nanoscale, solid-state devices based on bottom-up fabrication using molecular components.