Artificial active transport offers new way to prepare complex oligorotaxanes

A new class of synthetic molecular pump has been created that can rapidly and selectively prepare oligorotaxanes with a specific number and sequence of macrocyclic rings.

Molecular pumps are a type of molecular machine which drive a system away from equilibrium by moving molecules against an energy gradient. In nature, this movement is called active transport and is a crucial part of many life-sustaining processes, relying on complex protein architecture within cells to shuttle molecules to where they are needed.