ArticleNature nanotechnology2011
A single synthetic small molecule that generates force against a load.
Article in Nature nanotechnology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Forces in mechanically interlocked materials.Chemical Society reviews · 2026Review
- Force Reveals Hidden Conformations and Dissociation Pathways in Individual π-Interacting Dimers.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- Article
- Rotaxane-Functionalized Dyes for Charge-Rectification in p-Type Photoelectrochemical Devices.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- Insights from an information thermodynamics analysis of a synthetic molecular motor.Nature chemistry · 2022Article
- The many flavours of mechanochemistry and its plausible conceptual underpinnings.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2021Review
- Conformations and cryo-force spectroscopy of spray-deposited single-strand DNA on gold.Nature communications · 2019Article
- Dynamics of individual molecular shuttles under mechanical force.Nature communications · 2018Article
- Dynamic force spectroscopy of synthetic oligorotaxane foldamers.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
- Synthetic oligorotaxanes exert high forces when folding under mechanical load.Nature nanotechnology · 2018Article
- Mechanochemistry of the mechanical bond.Chemical science · 2018Review
- Mechanical measurement of hydrogen bonded host-guest systems under non-equilibrium, near-physiological conditions.Chemical science · 2017Article
- Artificial Molecular Machines.Chemical reviews · 2015Review
- Mechanical stability of bivalent transition metal complexes analyzed by single-molecule force spectroscopy.Beilstein journal of organic chemistry · 2015Article
- Reversible light switch for macrocycle mobility in a DNA rotaxane.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2012Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Some biomolecules are able to generate directional forces by rectifying random thermal motions. This allows these molecular machines to perform mechanical tasks such as intracellular cargo transport or muscle contraction in plants and animals. Although some artificial molecular machines have been synthesized and used collectively to perform mechanical tasks, so far there have been no direct measurements of mechanical processes at the single-molecule level. Here we report measurements of the mechanical work performed by a synthetic molecule less than 5 nm long. We show that biased Brownian motion of the sub-molecular components in a hydrogen-bonded [2]rotaxane-a molecular ring threaded onto a molecular axle-can be harnessed to generate significant directional forces. We used the cantilever of an atomic force microscope to apply a mechanical load to the ring during single-molecule pulling-relaxing cycles. The ring was pulled along the axle, away from the thermodynamically favoured binding site, and was then found to travel back to this site against an external load of 30 pN. Using fluctuation theorems, we were able to relate measurements of the work done at the level of individual rotaxane molecules to the free-energy change as previously determined from ensemble measurements. The results show that individual rotaxanes can generate directional forces of similar magnitude to those generated by natural molecular machines.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.