Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Self-assembly of molecules triggered by electricity

The options for controlling molecular self-assembly processes have been limited. A fresh approach uses electrons to facilitate self-assembly, and thereby provides precise external control over the process.
  1. Robert Francke

    1. Robert Francke is in the Department of Electrochemistry & Catalysis, Leibniz Institute for Catalysis, 18059 Rostock, Germany.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Molecular recognition is the formation of specific interactions between two or more molecules through non-covalent bonding, and has a crucial role in biological systems. Chemists have long been working to achieve molecular recognition between synthetic molecules under non-biological conditions: when molecules with specific properties are brought together, they self-assemble spontaneously until an equilibrium ratio between the number of free and assembled molecules is reached. However, so far, only a few options have been available for steering the time course of the process. Writing in Nature, Jiao et al.1 present a method that uses electrochemical reduction of the components to trigger molecular assembly. This ground-breaking approach enables assembly to be switched on and off at will, allows the assembly rate to be tuned, and can generate stable solutions containing almost any possible ratio of assemblies and free molecules.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 603, 229-230 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00640-3

References

  1. Jiao, Y. et al. Nature 603, 265–270 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Philp, D. & Stoddart, J. F. Angew. Chem. Int. Edn 35, 1154–1196 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Persch, E., Dumele, O. & Diederich, F. Angew. Chem. Int. Edn 54, 3290–3327 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Studer, A. & Curran, D. P. Nature Chem. 6, 765–773 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Francke, R. & Little, R. D. ChemElectroChem 6, 4373–4382 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Aida, T., Meijer, E. W. & Stupp, S. I. Science 335, 813–817 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • Reporter, Nature

    Reporter, Nature Location: London, UK - Hybrid office and remote working Closing date: 13th May 2024   Nature, the world’s most authoritative scien...

    London (Greater) (GB)

    Springer Nature Ltd

  • Vice-Chancellor and President

    The Chinese University of Hong Kong Vice-Chancellor and President The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is conducting a worldwide search for t...

    Hong Kong (HK)

    The Chinese University of Hong Kong

  • ERC-funded PhD and Postdoc Positions in Comparative Genomics

    We are looking for two PhD and/or PostDoc candidates for the 6 years ERC-funded grant project "BATPROTECT" in Frankfurt a.M., Germany

    Frankfurt am Main, Hessen (DE)

    Senckenberg Society for Nature Research

  • Silver Endowed Chair (Developmental Psychiatry)(Open Rank Faculty)

    The Robert A. Silver Endowed Chair in Developmental Neurobiology leads an internationally recognized, competitively funded research program...

    Tampa, Florida

    University of South Florida - Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences

  • W2 Professorship with tenure track to W3 in Animal Husbandry (f/m/d)

    The Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Göttingen invites applications for a temporary professorship with civil servant status (g...

    Göttingen (Stadt), Niedersachsen (DE)

    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links