Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.136, No.22, 7899-7906, 2014
Axle Length Does Not Affect Switching Dynamics in Degenerate Molecular Shuttles with Rigid Spacers
For a series of [2]rotaxane molecular shuttles possessing linear rigid rod-like axles of varying lengths between degenerate recognition sites, the activation barrier for shuttling motion was clearly shown to be constant. Moreover, dynamic NMR studies have revealed that both the entropic and enthalpic contributions to the shuttling motion remain constant regardless of the actual length of the rigid rod-like axles employed herein.