Exploitation of machines at the single molecular level is the ultimate miniaturization for the emergence of
potentially radically new technologies in the field of nanomedicine, sustainable development and energy
harvesting. To have molecular machines going from the flask to the real world, it is now required, not only
to master the motions of nanomachines, but also to exploit them to reach practical applications for
example by transferring energy and / or information within assemblies of molecular gears anchored on
surface.
In this project, molecular design, theoretical calculations, chemical synthesis and STM will be combined to
quantify three key parameters, in orders to increase the efficiency of a gearing motion and consequently
to overpass our best result (transfer a rotation up to 3 consecutive molecules). In order to rationalize our
design guidelines, two series of gears prototypes will be evaluated.