

LIANG FENG, PHD
Mechanisorption: Storing Energy in Non-Equilibrium Materials through Active Adsorption
Motion of molecular machines in solution is considered as walking in a hurricane and swimming in molasse. I explored the repeated behaviors of molecular pumps working away from equilibrium on surfaces, promising a bright future it holds for not only chemistry but also for the materials and medical sciences. The dynamics of artificial molecular machines are harnessed on surfaces of extended structures, leading to an active mode of adsorption—mechanisorption—in addition to passive physisorption and chemisorption. MOF nanosheets and nanoparticles act as coordinative organizers for arrays of artificial molecular pumps constructed of half dumbbells which can be threaded using pumping cassettes by multiple rings, one ring at a time, and then all released at once on command. Mechanisorption expands, in a fundamental manner, the scope and potential of adsorption phenomena and offers a transformative approach to control chemistry at surfaces and interfaces. These dynamic architectures with unprecedented complexity offer access to life-like materials that add solutions to the arsenal of chemistry and energy research.
Further reading:
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Feng, L.‡; Qiu, Y.‡; Guo, Q.-H.; Chen, Z.; Seale, J.; He, K.; Wu, H.; Feng, Y.; Farha, O. K.; Astumian, R. D.; Stoddart, J. F., Science 2021,374, 1215–1221. DOI: 10.1126/science.abk1391.
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Tiny labmade motors could one day suck pollutants from the air and harvest precious metals, News / Science
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When push comes to shove, News & Views / Nature Chemistry
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A Molecular Pump Facilitates Mechanical Adsorption Away from Equilibrium, Highlight / Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
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Mechanisorption mimics biomolecular machinery, Chemical & Engineering News
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Chemists develop a fundamentally new mode of adsorption, Phys.org
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First fundamentally new form of adsorption for more than 90 years driven by molecular machines, Chemistry World
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Chemists create new mode of adsorption, Engineering 360
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Mechanisorption—Nobel prize winner team tackled the century-long challenge in adsorption, X-MOL
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Chemists develop a fundamentally new mode of adsorption, Northwestern Now
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A Fundamentally New Mode of Adsorption Makes its Debut, NU Chemistry Newsletters
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Mechanisorption, a fundamentally new mechanism for active surface adsorption, UMaine News
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Active Adsorption Achieved by Artificial Molecular Machines, Science and Technology Daily
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Nobel Laureate Stoddart Team Discovered a New Adsorption Mode, Frontiers of Polymer Science


