Classical molecular dynamics with universal force field has been used to study the behavior of molecular sized propeller-shaped rotor with a large dipole moment (m ~ 42 debye) mounted on a rectangular nanostructured molecular grid.
Rare gas flow from a supersonic nozzle and rotating electric field were used to drive the propeller.
Under most conditions examined the rare gas caused the rotor to maintain fairly regular rotational motion. For each frequency of the rotating electric field a minimum field strength required to maintain synchronous rotation of the rotor Ecrit was found. Ecrit dependence on frequency is roughly linear.
When the field strength decreases under 3kT/m, however, random thermal motion overwhelms the response to the field. The rotor is a chiral octahedral complex of rhenium with two substituted o-phenanthroline ligands, one positively and one negatively charged, and is attached to an axial position of a dirhodium tetracarboxylate moiety in the grid through a 2-(3-cyanobicyclo[1.1.1]pent-1-yl)malonic dialdehyde ligand.