MiCRoARTiS - Microwave Fingerprinting Artificial Molecular Motors in Virtual Isolation
MiCRoARTiS is the blueprint for a five-year program of frontier research to develop a sophisticated spectroscopic approach to study artificial molecular motors. The ultimate goal will be to demonstrate the harnessing of conformational dynamics of molecular motors in the gas phase using microwave spectroscopy. My recent research has shown we can measure broadband microwave spectra of molecular motors in idle mode. Such achievement was remarkable not only because rotationally resolved studies of molecules of this size were out of reach until now, but also because it opens a gateway to a new research line that is risky and ambitious, but its potential is clear. Emerging from a static frame to studies of molecular motors in action in the gas phase will unlock their structural dynamics with unprecedented control over the environment. Molecular nanotechnology will gain a new experimental tool that is highly compatible with theoretical modelling approaches. The significance of this project emerges from the current lack of high-resolution probes that are able to capture a complete structural picture of the mechanical steps of these architectures. An evolved structure-solving tool will be developed, exploiting the unrivalled abilities of microwave spectroscopy to recover three-dimensional structures from rotationally resolved spectra. The virtual isolation created in gas phase molecular ensembles will be exploited to disclose intrinsic and interfacial structural manoeuvres of molecular motors. For the first time, rotationally resolved studies of molecular motors will be carried out in geared-mode, and in the gas phase. A new technology for thermal and optical control of samples will be developed to augment the molecular library at reach, carving a path for this methodology to extend beyond the five-year lifetime of the project. A new vision for spectroscopy of artificial molecular machinery will emerge and significantly advance this frontier of research.
Status: Running
Starting date: 1/Sep/2022
End date: 31/Aug/2027
Financing: 1,856,793.00 Euros
Financing entity: European Research Council
Project ID: ERC Starting Grant 2021
Person*month: 0
Group person*month: 0
