Molecular motors run in unison in a metal-organic framework

For molecular motors to be exploited effectively, they need to be able to operate in unison. However, integrating billions of these nanometre-sized motors into a single system and getting them to operate in unison has proved to be quite a challenge. Organic chemists at the University of Groningen have now succeeded in integrating numerous unidirectional light-driven rotary motors into a metal-organic framework (a solid material with a 3-D cage-like structure). Details of their discovery were published on 18 March, in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.