Achievement

Condensed-phase artificial molecular machines are a very promising platform for the development of stimuli-responsive bulk materials. By choosing well-characterized molecular "parts" with specific functionalities, molecular machines may be synthesized and assembled in a predetermined manner amenable to sophisticated functions. Cortnie Vogelsberg's solid-state NMR analysis of crystalline 1,4-bis(iodoethynyl)bicyclo[2.2.2]octane showed that halogen bonding is a useful tool to assemble molecular rotors that sustain ultra-fast machine-like functions. The study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2011, 133, 6371 in collaboration with Profs. Stuart Brown from the Physics Department and Patrick Batail from the University of Angers, France, validates an unprecedented approach to the construction of amphidynamic crystals where the framework itself provides the template to differentiate rotor dynamics and to sustain engineered rotation to very low temperatures.