Incorporating Mechanically Interlocked Molecules into Solid State Materials

化学家知道如何合成纳米级的开关和机器，这些开关和机器由通过机械连接(即环互锁形成链的方式)连接在一起的分子组成。然而，这些精细的分子只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，创造超高密度分子存储器或在分子水平上控制材料的电子性质的想法将非常接近实现。实现更高水平的分子组织和连贯性的一种方法是将经历运动(例如旋转或平移)的软的和动态的分子组件组织到固态材料的孔中。我们的研究小组最近完成了这样一种原型材料的制备及其在固体中的内部动力学演示(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，也是本研究提案的基础。

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.