Interfacial Mechanochemistry
The interface between hydrophobic air and hydrophilic water is suitable for localizing amphiphilic molecules and nanostructures. By uniaxially compressing molecules localized at an interface using a wall called a barrier, it is possible to create a molecular thin film with a thickness of one molecule called a Langmuir film. Furthermore, the laminated film obtained by accumulating this is called a Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) film, and is expected to be applied to materials with a layered structure and molecular electronics.
In addition, by integrating a molecular machine called molecular pliers at a macroscale air-water interface that can be manipulated by humans, it is possible to mechanically manipulate the molecular machine through the macroscopic actions of compressing and expanding the barrier.[1 ,2]. In other words, at the air-water interface, changes caused by the deformation of nano-sized molecules, an extremely small amount of energy that cannot be manipulated by human hands, can be manipulated by macro-scale mechanical movements similar to those of the human hand. It can be said that it is a ``field'' that connects the huge scale difference between nano and macro.
We aim to utilize the air-water interface as a site for mechanical manipulation of molecules and nanostructures to change the structure and express the functionality of nanodevices such as sensors and channels that respond mechanically.
1.D. Ishikawa, T. Mori, Y. Yonamine, W. Nakanishi, D. L. Cheung, J. P. Hill, K. Ariga, “Mechanochemical Tuning of the Binaphthyl Conformation at the Air-Water Interface”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 54, 8988–8991 (2015). DOI: 10.1002/anie.201503363
2.T. Mori, D. Ishikawa, Y. Yonamine, Y. Fujii, J. P. Hill, K. Ariga, W. Nakanishi, “Mechanically Induced Opening-Closing Movements of Binaphthyl Molecular Pliers: Digital Phase Transition vs.s. Continuous Conformational Change”, ChemPhysChem, 18, 1470–1477 (2017). DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201601144