Living organisms are continuously driven out-of-equilibrium by molecular machines that act at the nanoscale. For instance, the unidirectional rotation of biological nanomotors is exploited to create adenosine triphosphate, which is the energy source of many of the chemical processes of biological systems, or to drive the rotation of flagella to move cells. Our team developed an artificial molecular motor based on an overcrowded alkene motif that can be used as a crosslinking agent for the formation of polymer networks. Irradiation with UV light induces the unidirectional rotation of the molecule around an axle and this motion is transferred to the polymer strands; the resulting braiding of the macromolecules results in an overall shrinkage of the gel. We recently explored the influence of external parameters, such as light power, temperature and solvent, on the kinetics and extent of contraction of our motor-based materials. Similarly, we varied several parameters of the network itself, such as the molecular weight and the persistence length of the strands. This work was used to determine structure-property relationships correlating the nanoscopic motion of the molecular motors, the properties of the polymer chains and the resulting macroscopic contraction of our gels. We believe that these results provide insights on the action of molecular machines inside soft matter, both for artificial and biological systems.

Rationalization and optimization of the contractile behavior of polymer networks crosslinked with molecular motors

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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