With the eventual goal of demonstrating a motorized nanocar, the key structure has been synthesized which bears a light-activated unidirectional molecular motor and an oligo(phenylene ethynylene) chassis and axle system with four carboranes to serve as the wheels. Kinetics studies in solution show that the motor indeed rotates upon irradiation with 365 nm light, and the fullerene-free carborane wheel system is an essential design feature for motor operation.
Construction of Photo‐Responsive Pd
2
L
4
‐Type Nanocages based on Feringa's Second‐Generation Motor and Its Guest Binding Ability for C
60
摘要:
AbstractWe present the construction of a M2L4‐type metal‐organic nanocage featuring four endohedral Feringa's motor motifs and its adaptive encapsulation towards a C60 guest molecule. The structure of the cage, though complicated on the 1H NMR spectrum due to the adoption of mixed ligands, was unambiguously characterized with a combination of ESI‐MS, 2D DOSY, 13C NMR and particularly the SAXS technique. The molecular motor within the cage demonstrated similar photophysical properties to the uncoordinated one, indicating the motor's function was not compromised when it was anchored in such a confined nanospace. Furthermore, the nanocage showed good guest encapsulation ability towards C60, and a guest induced‐fit behavior of the cage was revealed based on the extensive SAXS analysis and molecular dynamics simulation. The adaptive motorized nanocage reported here represents one of the very few examples of integrating individual motors into a discrete nanoconfined system and offers prospects to achieve its non‐equilibrium functions.