A Chemically Switchable Molecular Pinwheel

Abstract

Spinning around: By insertion of a bifunctional ligand that acts as an axle—one end tethered to a silver surface, the other bonded to the metal center of a metalloporphyrin—an entire population of porphyrin molecules can be induced to spin. Removal of the axle quenches the motion. The switching process may be repeated an indefinite number of times.