Application of Structural Principles to the Design of Triptycene-Based Molecular Gears with Parallel Axes

Abstract

This perspective discusses the important aspects of the design of molecular gear systems based on triptycene. Molecular systems are categorized into three classes according to the orientation of the gear axes: i) bent (bevel gears), ii) linear, and ii) parallel (spur gears). To date, no examples of molecular gears in which the axes of rotation lie in parallel have been reported; correspondingly, the bulk of this report focuses on the factors one must evaluate to construct such systems.