Molecular Mechanics

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Artificial molecular machines, capable of converting chemical, electrochemical and photochemical energy into mechanical motion, represent a high-impact, intellectually challenging and growing field of interdisciplinary research. These molecular scale systems utilize a ‘bottom-up’ technology centered upon the design and manipulation of molecular assemblies that are potentially capable of delivering efficient operations at dramatically reduced length scales when compared with traditional micro/macro scale machines.

We aim to understand the physical laws that govern molecules’ properties as they scale from nano to micro to macro; more importantly, we are developing a new class of mechanical, optical, and medical devices utilizing artificial molecular machines as the key “smart materials”. Early success has been achieved in the development of the first artificial-molecular-machine-based mechanical device, as shown in Fig.1 and Fig.2.

Figure 1: (a) Schematic diagram of the proposed mechanism of the device’s operation and (b) the experimental data.	Figure 2: Our work was featured in Applied Physics Letters Nov. 29, 2004 issue.

1. Tony Jun Huang, Branden Brough, Chih-Ming Ho, Yi Liu, Amar H. Flood, Paul A. Bonvallet, J. Fraser Stoddart, Marko Baller, Sergei Maganov, A Nanomechanical Device Based on Linear Molecular Motors, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 85, No. 22, pp. 5391-5393, 2004. (Cover image) [PDF]
2. Tony Jun Huang, Hsian-Rong Tseng, Lin Sha, Weixing Lu, Branden Brough, Amar Flood, Bi–Dan Yu, Paul C. Celestre, Jane P. Chang, J. Fraser Stoddart, Chih-Ming Ho, Mechanical Shuttling of Linear Motor-Molecules in Condensed Phases on Solid Substrates, Nano Letters, Vol. 4, No. 11, pp. 2065-2071, 2004. [PDF]
3. Yi Liu, Amar H. Flood, Paul A. Bonvallet, Scott A. Vignon, Brian H. Northrop, Hsian-Rong Tseng, Jan O. Jeppesen, Tony J. Huang, Branden Brough, Marco Baller, Sergei Magonov, Santiago D. Solares, William A. Goddard, Chih-Ming Ho, and J. Fraser Stoddart, Linear Artificial Molecular Muscles, Journal of American Chemical Society, Vol. 127, pp. 9745-9759, 2005. [PDF]