Altitudinal surface-mounted molecular rotors

Abstract

After a general description of some potential applications of artificial altitudinal surface-mounted molecular rotors, the synthesis, surface mounting, and characterization of the first examples of such rotors on a gold surface are described. Molecular dynamics calculations are used to discuss how a unidirectional rotation can be induced by an electric field oscillating normal to the surface as a function of its amplitude and frequency, as well as temperature.