• Dimecres 14 de juny, a les quatre de la tarda, el professor Stoddart, Premi Nobel de Química 2016 i Dr. Honoris Causa per la UB, pronunciarà la conferència «Artificial molecular machines» a l’Aula Magna de la Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l’Alimentació. Serà una conferència de gran interès científic, per la qual cosa des del Departament animem a assitir-hi.  

Resum de la conferència: The dream of tiny mechanical devices powered by artificial molecular machines remains a huge challenge for nanoscience. To make the components of these future devices, we need to control and understand the behavior of unnatural switchable molecules, and integrate these bistable systems into assemblies that demonstrate how significant work can be done. The invention of artificial molecular machines from their predecessors, in the form of shuttles and switches, through to motors and pumps will be traced. The energy used to do the work comes in the form of chemical fuel, electrochemical potential and light activation. They are a minimum requirement for the machines to function away from equilibrium. In a little more than three decades, guided by the chemistry of the non-covalent bond, we have progressed from simple molecular shuttles whose parts oscillate thanks to thermal fluctuation at equilibrium, to directional motion in an electric molecular motor.