Molecular rotors with designed polar rotating groups possess mechanics-controllable wide-range rotational speed

Abstract Molecular rotors with controllable functions are promising for molecular machines and electronic devices. Especially, fast rotation in molecular rotor enables switchable molecular conformations and charge transport states for electronic applications. However, the key to molecular rotor-base...

Description complète

Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Jian Shao, Wenpeng Zhu, Xiaoyue Zhang, Yue Zheng
Format: article
Langue:EN
Publié: Nature Portfolio 2020
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:https://doaj.org/article/a50e420bcaad4881bf7c3cafa8a87d67
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
Description
Résumé:Abstract Molecular rotors with controllable functions are promising for molecular machines and electronic devices. Especially, fast rotation in molecular rotor enables switchable molecular conformations and charge transport states for electronic applications. However, the key to molecular rotor-based electronic devices comes down to a trade-off between fast rotational speed and thermal stability. Fast rotation in molecular rotor requires a small energy barrier height, which disables its controllability under thermal excitation at room temperature. To overcome this trade-off dilemma, we design molecular rotors with co-axial polar rotating groups to achieve wide-range mechanically controllable rotational speed. The interplay between polar rotating groups and directional mechanical load enables a “stop-go” system with a wide-range rotational energy barrier. We show through density functional calculations that directional mechanical load can modulate the rotational speed of designed molecular rotors. At a temperature of 300 K, these molecular rotors operate at low rotational speed in native state and accelerates tremendously (up to 1019) under mechanical load.