A Light- and Electricity-Driven Molecular Pushing Motor

July 28, 2017

Title

A Light- and Electricity-Driven Molecular Pushing Motor

Author

Gebhard Haberhauer, Christoph Burkhart

Year

2016

Journal

European Journal of Organic Chemistry

Abstract

The synthesis and investigation of molecular artificial motors have been subject to massive developments over the last years. One challenge is the design of machines driven by "clean" stimuli. Types of energies are considered as "clean" stimuli if their use leads to (almost) no side products, no byproducts, no dilution or other disruptive effects. Here, we present a pushing motor which is driven by light and electricity both being considered as "clean". The switching units of the motor are an azobenzene and a thianthrene unit. The first is triggered by light; the latter changes its structure due to a redox-process accomplished by cyclic voltammetry. All four states of the molecular motor were identified by quantum chemical methods and UV/vis spectroscopy. The cycles can be performed several times without significant change of the signals.

Instrument

J-815

Keywords

Circular dichroism, Stereochemistry, Materials