Single-Molecular Motors and Gears Based on Star-shaped Ruthenium Complexes

In the last fifteen years, a few molecular motors have been designed and synthesized. In the present review paper, we present and discuss our contribution to the field. The strategy followed to control the rotation in a molecular rotary motor is based on the manipulation of the motors as single molecules. This specificity implies the use of adapted architectures. The molecules have a piano-stool structure with a “stator” meant to be grafted on a surface and a “rotor” bearing peripheral ferrocenyl redox-active groups, so that addressing the molecule with nanoelectrodes in a planar configuration or with a STM tip in a vertical configuration would trigger rotation.