The birth of molecular machines
Molecular machines are the focus of nano research. At the beginning of the new year in 2007, the Toulouse Material Design and Structure Research Center of France and the scientists of the University of Berlin in Germany jointly published an important achievement in the American "Nature Nanotechnology" magazine: successfully developed a rotatable "molecular wheel" and assembled it. The first biomolecular machine in the true sense.
Power sources
The power sources of molecular machines are mainly chemical drive, electric drive and light drive. For example, the ATP synthase rotor rotates due to the flow of protons, which is a chemical drive; cable hydrocarbons perform their functions due to the gains and losses of copper ion electrons, which are electrical drives; and the "advance" of molecular worms is caused by light that causes azo molecules. It is caused by the change of conformation, which belongs to the light drive.
Research history
In 1979, Seiji Shinkai, a supramolecular chemist at Sojo University in Japan, SeijiShinkai realized the first case Light-controlled "molecular nanomachines"
In 1983, Sauvage used the metal template method for the first time to induce the synthesis of cordanine.
In 1994, Sauvage synthesized a case of cable hydrocarbon that can be driven by electrochemistry.
Since the 1990s, the Toulouse Material Design and Structure Research Center in France has started to develop molecular machines. The plane molecular wheel was successfully synthesized in 1998; the molecular engine was developed for the first time in 2005; the "molecular wheel" developed in 2007 was the first real molecular machine. This very strange molecule consists of two "wheels" with a diameter of 0.7 nanometers, composed of trityl molecules, fixed on a shaft 0.6 nanometers long. The chemical structure of all molecular machines is fixed on the copper base.
Researchers are convinced that the "molecular wheel" will occupy an important position in the fields of complex nanomachines such as molecular trucks and molecular nanorobots. It can be used to remove lesions in human cells and act as artificial carriers for drug delivery. The formation of molecular valves and so on.
Molecular machines
Assuming that molecular robots can be automatically generated in organisms, its initial application seems to be centered on medical and other fields. For example, molecular robots targeting viruses may be realized through the development of molecular tweezers. Process the front part of the molecular tweezers so that it can only be combined with specific viruses. In addition, molecular robots such as molecular tweezers can be used to intensively deliver drugs and the like to the cancerous site. With the rapid advancement of the level of biotechnology, such biotechnology drugs may quickly replace existing drugs and create better well-being for humans, but these constructed fusion proteins are far from expressing what people desire The level of structure and function-the ideal state of artificial multi-domain "protein machines", at best they can only be regarded as a prototype of protein molecular machines. Now, scientists are trying to assemble such important machinery in molecular size to create an extremely tiny device. Scientists intend to use this device to manipulate other molecules, which can be used in medicine to remove viruses from deep in the body. , Cancer cells, etc., they have unlimited application prospects.
Many countries have formulated relevant strategies or plans and invested huge sums of money to seize the strategic high ground of new technology such as molecular robots. The "Robot Age" monthly magazine recently pointed out that molecular robots have a wide range of potential uses, and one of the most important ones is their application in the medical and military fields.
The emergence of every new technology seems to contain infinite possibilities. It won’t be long before magical molecular robots with only the size of molecules will continue to enter the daily lives of human beings.
Related awards
On October 5, 2016, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jean-Pierre Sovich, J. Fraser Stoddart and Bo Nader L. Felinga. In recognition of its design and construction of the smallest machine "molecular machine".