"Unidirectional molecular motor on a gold surface"

Nature

"Here we demonstrate that a light-driven molecular motor capable of repetitive unidirectional rotation ... can be mounted on the surface of gold nanoparticles. The motor design ... uses a chiral helical alkene with an upper half that serves as a propeller and is connected through a carbon-carbon double bond (the rotation axis) to a lower half that serves as a stator. The stator carries two thiol-functionalized 'legs', which then bind the entire motor molecule to a gold surface."