From Chemical Topology to Molecular Machines (Nobel Lecture)

To a large extent, the field of "molecular machines" started after several groups were able to prepare, reasonably easily, interlocking ring compounds (named catenanes for compounds consisting of interlocking rings and rotaxanes for rings threaded by molecular filaments or axes). Important families of molecular machines not belonging to the interlocking world were also designed, prepared, and studied but, for most of them, their elaboration was more recent than that of catenanes or rotaxanes. Since the creation of interlocking ring molecules is so important in relation to the molecular machinery area, we will start with this aspect of our work. The second part will naturally be devoted to the dynamic…

• CI
  Centre International de Recherche aux Frontières de la Chimie
• EC
  European Commission
• UD
  Université de Strasbourg
• CN
  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique