Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
The Mechanical Bond: A Work of Art
Carson J. Bruns and J. Fraser Stoddart
Abstract Mechanically interlocked objects are ubiquitous in our world. They can
be spotted on almost every scale of matter and in virtually every sector of society,
spanning cultural, temporal, and physical boundaries the world over. From art to
machinery, to biological entities and chemical compounds, mechanical interlocking
is being used and admired every day, inspiring creativity and ingenuity in art and
technology alike. The tiny world of mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs),
which has been established and cultivated over the past few decades, has connected
the ordinary and molecular worlds symbolically with creative research and artwork
that subsumes the molecular world as a miniaturization of the ordinary one. In this
review, we highlight how graphical representations of MIMs have evolved to this
end, and discuss various other aspects of their beauty as chemists see them today.
We argue that the many aspects of beauty in MIMs are relevant, not only to the
pleasure chemists derive from their research, but also to the progress of the research
itself.
Keywords Beauty
Catenanes
Chemical Topology
Elegance
Knots
Rotaxane
Contents
1 Introduction ................................................................................... 20
2 The Beauty of the Mechanical Bond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1 In Nature ................................................................................ 23
2.2 InArt ................................................................................... 25
2.3
In Society ............................................................................... 28
