Main > ELECTRONICS. > Molecular Electronics > Rotors. > Molecular DiPolar Rotors > Co.: USA. C (NPLS/Patent) > NPLS Contents

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Molecular machinery is still a far-off dream, but many labs are nonetheless pursuing it. Author and coworkers have synthesized molecules (such as the one shown) that contain a rotating moiety (red) and two cyclopentadienyl "feet" with thiomercurial "tentacles" that adsorb to a gold surface so that the rotator axle is held parallel to the surface. The rotator is free to turn, but in practice the team finds that the tentacles sometimes impede its rotation. In the absence of such interference, the dipole of the rotator can be flipped by the electric field of a scanning tunneling microscope tip. Molecular dynamics calculations suggest that an alternating electric field perpendicular to the surface could be used to spin such a molecular rotor in one direction


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