Artificial molecular muscles: can contract lysusions to all positions. Nature Chemistry paper recommended.

Recently, scientists designed molecular muscles similar to daisy chain structures.
is even better than linear biomusculars, which not only have similar scalability, but also scale in 2D 3D.
translation Zhuo Siqi review visit winter functional muscles for our daily life is extremely important, leaving them, we can not even ordinary breathing, eating.
, such an important muscle is very simple at the molecular level.
, functional muscles consist of two fine fibers connected to the bone.
when the fibers slide, the muscles move.
recently, scientists have designed a molecular muscle system with a complex structure similar to Daisy Chain.
is even better than linear biomusculars, which not only have similar scalability, but also scale in 2D 3D.
molecular daisy chain The stem of Flower A passes through the ring at the end of the flower B stem and is blocked by the flower head on flower B, so that the stem of flower A can only pass through a ring of flower B.
the process over and over again, you get a "daisy chain."
same is true of the latest molecular muscles.
parts of the molecule are similar to flower stems, with one end having a ring-like structure and the other side connecting a replacement base with a large bit resistance.
to replace the base and flower head, play a blocking role.
in a single dimension, the molecule and the biological muscle have a similar principle of function: the two molecules can slide linearly between the two molecules, when the ring structure touches obstacles to slide stop.
but three molecules can be assembled into a Y-shaped structure that can scale on a flat triangle.
four molecules can be assembled into flat four-sided planes that stretch outside the body.
to make molecular chains scientists use step-by-step processes to create molecular muscles.
start with the molecular ring that plays the "flower ring".
molecular ring is made up of aromatic rings that bind to the connecting arm by carbon-oxygen bonds, and the linear part of the connecting arm that acts as a "flower stem".
in the linear part, the ring structure and three bonds can be used to maintain its rigidity, but also as gaskets to allow the linear part to stretch all-round.
when these molecules are present independently in the solution, there is little chance of forming molecular muscles using their own structures.
, however, when zinc ions are added to the solution, these molecules form an octa-symmetric complex centered on zinc ions, causing the end of the connecting arm to lock the molecular ring at the starting end.
the clustering process needs to be carried out at high temperatures (50 degrees C) over a period of time (one and a half to four days).
the molecules in the right direction, obstacles are needed to terminate the connection.
researchers used methylated rings with larger bits as obstacles.
, zinc ions are removed (with Na4EDTA) and the assembled molecules can stretch freely before touching the obstacle at the end.
showed the ability of Y-chains formed by three molecules and tesome chains formed by four molecules.
they also described the structural characteristics of the two molecules and estimated their possible movements.
scientists have found that adding and removing zinc ions causes the molecular chain to scale inversely.
three molecular chains can stretch nearly 23%.
four-molecule chain can stretch about 36%.
these values are comparable to linear muscles (about 27 percent) and the researchers suspect that these structures could be used as molecular machines for multi-dimensional operation.
this type of application requires controlling the amount of molecular movement to respond accurately to the target.
the study needs to be further developed.
related paper information (title) Mechanically interlocked daisy-chain-likestructures as multidimensional molecular muscles (author) Jia-ChengChang, Shin-Han Tseng, Chien-Chen Lai, Yi-Hung Liu, Shie-Ming Peng and Sheng-Hsien Chiu Journal: 10.1038/NCHEM.2608 (Summary) Daisy chains (DCs) aregarlands of flowers that be as bralets. As a result oftheir beautiful interlocked structures and possible muscle-like motions, cyclicmolecular DCs ('cn' DCs, where n is the number of the repeating units) long have been seditairing synthetic targets for supramolecular chemists. Sourcewe reporting actual molecular muscles that-unlike one-dimensional (1D) biologicals-contract and stretch in 2D or 3D. These systems have thestructures of the .c3- and .c4? DCs with subcomponents that operate as molecularswitches, powered by through the addition or removal of Zn2 plus ions to impartmuscle-like behavior. We assembled these sc3- and s4 s/ DCs selectively byexploiting structural rigidity, cosium geometries and bond rotationalbarriers that disfavoured the formation of smaller homologues. The switchphenomena of our (c3) - and (c4) DCs resulted in the contracted molecular musclestretching by byely 23 and 36%, respectively, compar to the value (27%) for linear biological muscles. Source: Scientific Circle.