Synthesis and single-molecule imaging of highly mobile adamantane-wheeled nanocars.

Pin-Lei E Chu, Lin-Yung Wang, Saumyakanti Khatua, Anatoly B Kolomeisky, Stephan Link, James M Tour

Department of Chemistry, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, USA.

ACS nano 2013 Jan 22

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The synthesis and single-molecule imaging of two inherently fluorescent nanocars equipped with adamantane wheels is reported. The nanocars were imaged using 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY) as the chromophore, which was rigidly incorporated into the nanocar chassis via Sonogashira cross-coupling chemistry that permitted the synthesis of nanocars having different geometries. In particular, studied here were four- and three-wheeled nanocars with adamantane wheels. It was found that, for the four-wheeled nanocar, the percentage of moving nanocars and the diffusion constant show a significant improvement over p-carborane-wheeled nanocars with the same chassis. The three-wheeled nanocar showed only limited mobility due to its geometry. These results are consistent with a requisite wheel-like rolling motion. We furthermore developed a model that relates the percentage of moving nanocars in single-molecule experiments with the diffusion constant. The excellent agreement between the model and the new results presented here as well as previous single-molecule studies of fluorescent nanocars yields an improved understanding of motion in these molecular machines.

Citation

Pin-Lei E Chu, Lin-Yung Wang, Saumyakanti Khatua, Anatoly B Kolomeisky, Stephan Link, James M Tour. Synthesis and single-molecule imaging of highly mobile adamantane-wheeled nanocars. ACS nano. 2013 Jan 22;7(1):35-41