Abstract
The present project aims to expand the limits of current dissipative artificial systems, using chemical fuels to push a chemical system out of its equilibrium, dissipatively inducing a specific modification. The type and amount of fuel added will allow to control the timescale of such modification. This general goal will be articulated in four sections:
I) the design of an autonomous molecular machine that "breaths" (moves repetitively back and forth) akin to a living organism under the action of a reductant alcohol (furfural) and atmospheric oxygen as fuels; II) the design of complex imine/amine dynamic libraries that overturn their composition for a specific time under the action of an activated carboxylic acid (e.g. 2-phenyl-2-cyanopropanoic acid and its derivatives) as a fuel ; III) the design of a responsive polymer that changes its physical state over time under the action of the same chemical fuel in an overall sol-gel-sol transition, via dissipative control of imine-based cross-linking among polymeric chains ; IV) the design of a molecular machine that dissipatively undergoes a motion coupled to a structural modification under the action of a chemical fuel, inducing a time-controlled modulation of its EPR signal.
Scientific coordinator for the Department
Marco Lucarini (national coordinator)
Partnership
Università degli Studi di ROMA "La Sapienza"