Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

The tiniest Lego: a tale of nanoscale motors, rotors, switches and pumps

  • News Feature
  • Published:

From Nature

View current issue Submit your manuscript

Inspired by biology, chemists have created a cornucopia of molecular parts that act as switches, motors and ratchets. Now it is time to do something useful with them.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Anelli, P. L., Spencer, N. & Stoddart, J. F. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 113, 5131–5133 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Bissell, R. A., Córdova, E., Kaifer, A. E. & Stoddart, J. F. Nature 369, 133–137 (1994).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Green, J. E. et al. Nature 445, 414–417 (2007).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Zhu, K., O'Keefe, C. A., Vukotic, V. N., Schurko, R. W. & Loeb, S. J. Nature Chem. 7, 514–519 (2015).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. McGonigal, P. R. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1514485112 (2015).

  6. Blanco, V., Carlone, A., Hänni, K. D., Leigh, D. A. & Lewandowski, B. Angew. Chem. Int. Edn 51, 5166–5169 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Beswick, J. et al. Chem. Sci. 6, 140 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Koumura, N., Zijlstra, R. W. J., van Delden, R. A., Harada, N. & Feringa, B. L. Nature 401, 152–155 (1999).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Kudernac, T. et al. Nature 479, 208–211 (2011).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Eelkema, R. et al. Nature 440, 163 (2006).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Borowiak, M. et al. Cell 162, 403–411 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Tochitsky, I. et al. Neuron 81, 800–813 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Gu, H., Chao, J., Xiao, S.-J. & Seeman, N. C. Nature 465, 202–205 (2010).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Astumian, R. D. Nature Nanotechnol. 7, 684–688 (2012).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Krishnan, R. et al. Nature Struct. Mol. Biol. 20, 1450–1459 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Gao, W. et al. ACS Nano 9, 117–123 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Cheng, C. et al. Nature Nanotechnol. 10, 547–553 (2015).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Lewandowski, B. et al. Science 339, 189–193 (2013).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Noda, Y., Hayashi, Y. & Ito, K. J. Appl. Polymer Sci. 131, 40509 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Mark Peplow
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Tweet Facebook LinkedIn Weibo Wechat

Related links

Related links

Related links in Nature Research

Materials science: The hole story 2015-Apr-08

Molecular robot mimics life's protein-builder 2013-Jan-10

Elusive protein factory mapped at last 2010-Nov-25

Nanotech comes alive 2008-Oct-07

High-density memory: A switch in time 2007-Jan-24

Related external links

Gordon Research Conference on Artificial Molecular Switches and Motors

David Leigh

Rafal Klajn

Ben Feringa

Dirk Trauner

Fraser Stoddart

Stephen Loeb

Nadrian Seeman

Dean Astumian

Nils Walter

Joe Wang

Kohzo Ito

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Peplow, M. The tiniest Lego: a tale of nanoscale motors, rotors, switches and pumps. Nature 525, 18–21 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/525018a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/525018a

  • Springer Nature Limited