Approaches to rotary molecular motors*

Interest has recently intensified in the search for molecular motors and actuators capable of delivering useful work to nanodevices under the control of electrochemical or photochemical power sources. While many of these man-made molecular machines are designed to deliver rectilinear motion, very few are proposed for the controlled delivery of rotary motion on the time scale characteristic of intramolecular rearrangements. The adaptation of commo-bis-dicarbollide metallacarborane structures to the possible design and synthesis of such rotary molecular motors is now under investigation. Progress toward this goal will be reported.