Redox Control of Molecular Motion in Switchable Artificial Nanoscale Devices

The design, synthesis and operation of molecular-scale systems that exhibit controllable motions of their component parts is a topic of great interest in nanoscience and a fascinating challenge of nanotechnology. The development of this kind of species constitutes the premise to the construction of molecular machines and motors, which in a not too distant future could find applications in fields such as materials science, information technology, energy conversion, diagnostics and medicine. In the past twenty-five years the development of supramolecular chemistry has enabled the construction of an interesting variety of artificial molecular machines. These devices operate via electronic and molecular rearrangements and, like the macroscopic counterparts, they need energy to work as well as signals to communicate with the operator. Here we outline the design principles at the basis of redox switching of molecular motion in artificial nanodevices. Redox processes, either chemically, electrically or photochemically induced, can indeed supply the energy to bring about molecular motions. Moreover, in the case of electrically and photochemically induced processes, electrochemical and photochemical techniques can be used to “read” the state of the system, and thus to control and monitor the operation of the device. Some selected examples are also reported to describe the most representative achievements in this research area.