Braking of a Light‐Driven Molecular Rotary Motor by Chemical Stimuli

Abstract

Artificial molecular motors hold great promise for application in responsive functional materials as well as to control the properties of biohybrid systems. Herein a strategy is reported to modulate the rotation of light-driven molecular motors. That is, the rotary speed of a molecular motor, functionalized with a biphenol moiety, could be decreased in situ by non-covalent substrate binding, as was established by ¹ H NMR and UV/Vis spectroscopy. These findings constitute an important step in the development of multi-responsive molecular machinery.