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Mechanisorption: Storing Energy in Non-Equilibrium Materials through Active Adsorption

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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.

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Further reading:

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