Department of Chemistry - PhD Student Seminar - Molecular Machines: Discovery and Synthesis

Student: Mr. Chi Ming KAN

Department: Department of Chemistry, HKUST

Supervisor(s): Professor Haibin SU

Abstract

Moving and doing work are characteristics of classical machines like lever system and pulley systems. The most notable examples in biological world would be F1-ATPase and kinesin, well-known for their rotary and translation motion.

In 1983 Sauvage pioneered metal-template synthesis of catenane, making synthesising mechanically interlocked ring structures practical and feasible, which constitute the basis of molecular machinery; in 1991 Stoddart designed molecular shuttle using rotaxane, demonstrating translation motion in molecular level; in 1997 Feringa reported a light-driven unidirectional molecular rotor; these work opened up the field of molecular machines and 2016 Nobel Chemistry Prize were awarded to aforementioned researchers.

In this seminar I will first introduce the nature and synthesis of mechanical bond, the interaction between two and more non-covalently bonded entities which are interlocked topologically; Second I would illustrate designs, working mechanisms and applications of selected molecular machines; Third I will discuss a reported synthesis on type III-B rotaxane dendrimers which has promising applications in drug delivery and synthesis on type III-C is proposed.