Braking of a Light-Driven Molecular Rotary Motor by Chemical Stimuli

Artificial molecular motors hold great promise for application in responsive functional materials as well as to control the properties of biohybrid systems. Herein a strategy is reported to modulate the rotation of light-driven molecular motors. That is, the rotary speed of a molecular motor, functionalized with a biphenol moiety, could be decreased in situ by non-covalent substrate binding, as was established by (HNMR)-H-1 and UV/Vis spectroscopy. These findings constitute an important step in the development of multi-responsive molecular machinery.