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Science 19 March 2004:
Vol. 303. no. 5665, pp. 1845 - 1849
DOI: 10.1126/science.1094791
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Reports

A Molecular Elevator

Jovica D. Badjic,1 Vincenzo Balzani,2 Alberto Credi,2* Serena Silvi,2 J. Fraser Stoddart1*

We report the incrementally staged design, synthesis, characterization, and operation of a molecular machine that behaves like a nanoscale elevator. The operation of this device, which is made of a platformlike component interlocked with a trifurcated riglike component and is only 3.5 nanometers by 2.5 nanometers in size, relies on the integration of several structural and functional molecular subunits. This molecular elevator is considerably more complex and better organized than previously reported artificial molecular machines. It exhibits a clear-cut on-off reversible behavior, and it could develop forces up to around 200 piconewtons.

1 California NanoSystems Institute and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
2 Dipartimento di Chimica "G. Ciamician," Università di Bologna, Via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: alberto.credi{at}unibo.it (A.C.); stoddart{at}chem.ucla.edu (J.F.S.)

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