A Molecular Pump Facilitates Mechanical Adsorption Away from Equilibrium.

Artificial molecular pumps that perform unidirectional motion on the molecular scale have been used to design systems operating away from equilibrium. Crafting such pumps onto a surface allows their unidirectional movement to be organized in a confined environment as well as the active pumping of adsorbents from the bulk solution to the surface. This study led to the discovery of the phenomenon of mechanisorption and paves the way for the construction of highly complex organized molecular architectures.