Nanowerk  January 18, 2022 The confinement of molecular machines into nanostructured cages and controlling their functions by external stimuli holds great potential for the creation of smart functional materials that imitate the embodied intelligence of biological processes. An international team of researchers (Germany, South Korea) constructed a remotely controllable supramolecular rotor inside a hollow cube-shaped zinc(II)-metallated porphyrinic cage (Zn-PB) molecule with a linear axle. The addition of a chemical stimulant initiates both rotary motion (rotation of the rotor arm around the axle) and tumbling motion (rotation of the axle) with rotation speeds of 4000 Hz and 1 Hz, respectively. By […]