The molecules synthesized in this study form different isomers when irradiated with blue light. Photo Credit: Akira Katsuyama |
Molecules that are induced by light to rotate bulky groups around central bonds could be developed into photo-activated bioactive systems, molecular switches, and more.
Researchers at Hokkaido University, led by Assistant Professor Akira Katsuyama and Professor Satoshi Ichikawa at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, have extended the toolkit of synthetic chemistry by making a new category of molecules that can be induced to undergo an internal rotation on interaction with light. Similar processes are believed to be important in some natural biological systems. Synthetic versions might be exploited to perform photochemical switching functions in molecular computing and sensing technologies, or in bioactive molecules including drugs. They report their findings in Nature Chemistry.
“Achieving a system like ours has been a significant challenge in photochemistry,” says Katsuyama. “The work makes an important contribution to an emerging field in molecular manipulation.”
Insights into the possibilities for light to significantly alter molecular conformations have come from examining some natural proteins. These include the rhodopsin molecules in the retina of the eye, which play a crucial role in converting light into the electrical signals that create our sense of vision in the brain. Details are emerging of how the absorption of light energy can induce a twisting rearrangement of part of the rhodopsin molecule, required for it to perform its biological function.
“Mimicking this in synthetic systems might create molecular-level switches with a variety of potential applications,” Katsuyama explains.