伸縮運動をするらせん分子・高分子の開発

抄録

Since the pioneering work by Stoddart, Sauvage, and Feringa on the design and synthesis of molecular machines, to whom the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded, various kinds of synthetic molecular machines have been developed. A helical structure, one of the essential structural motifs in biological systems, has the potential as a versatile structural component for constructing such a molecular machine, because of its spring-like shape that enables extension and contraction motions. We report here the recent progress in the synthesis, structures, and functions of artificial molecular springs based on single-or double-stranded helical oligomers and polymers that undergo an intriguing stimuli-responsive extension-contraction motion with maintaining their helical structures but with a change in the helical pitch. In particular, double-stranded spiroborate helicates with a one-handed helical sense exhibit a unique reversible elastic motion accompanied by a unidirectional twisting motion, thereby enabling a chiral molecular motion.