Solid-State Molecular Switches and Machines

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。事实上，这一化学领域是2016年诺贝尔化学奖的主题，获奖者是Sauvage、Stoddart和Feringa教授。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（旋转和平移）的演示（2012年5月，《自然化学》封面和2015年6月，《自然化学》）。这些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。具体而言，（a）铁电体和非线性光学性质，因为这些性质取决于固体中分子组分的排序和排列;（B）分离科学应用，因为应该可以罚款-调整材料孔隙内的分子相互作用，以进行分子筛选和隔离。学习如何在致密材料中组织和操作纳米级开关是制造这些组件的关键一步具有多种功能和特性的现实世界设备的一部分-理查德·费曼的著名概念“自下而上的建筑”-使用分子作为信息。

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). Indeed, this area of chemistry was the subject of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Profs Sauvage, Stoddart and Feringa. 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 prototype materials and demonstration of their internal dynamics (rotation and translation) in the solid state have recently been achieved by our research group (May 2012, front cover of Nature Chemistry and June 2015, Nature Chemistry). These discoveries provide 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 non-linear optical properties, as these are dependent on ordering and arrangement of molecular components in solids; (b) separation science applications, as it should be possible to fine-tune the molecular interactions inside the pores of the material for molecular sieving and sequestration.Learning how to organize and operate nanoscale switches in dense material is a crucial step towards making these components part of real-world devices with multiple functions and properties - Richard Feynman's famous concept of “building from the bottom-up” - using molecules as information.