Illustration: PositiveDope / Deviant Art (https://www.deviantart.com/positivedope/art/Angler-Fish-BIG-97779381)
A deep-sea fish inspired researchers to create a supramolecular light-driven machinery. A superior supramolecular machine was developed to efficiently convert widely used synthetic photoswitchable molecules – azobenzenes – from the stable to the metastable conformation with almost any visible light wavelength. The approach includes a metal–organic cage filled with one azobenzene molecule and one light-absorbing antenna molecule, the sensitizer. In close confinement inside the supramolecular cage, chemical processes that would not occur in normal conditions, become possible.
Prof. Arri Priimägi with a team of researchers from Tampere University in collaboration with Prof. Rafal Klajn from Weizmann Institute (Israel) and researcher colleagues from Poland and the UK conquered a new height by publishing in SCIENCE!
More information can be found here and in the actual paper.