Advances in Mechanically Bonded Molecules

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Background

Mechanically bonded molecules, such as catenanes and rotaxanes, have risen from niche curiosities in the mid-20th century, to a burgeoning area of chemical research in the late-20th century, to a diverse and robust field of interdisciplinary research in the 21st century. Mechanical bonds are becoming essential features of many molecular machines (marked by the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry), as well as advanced materials with a wide array of unique, unusual, and advantageous structures, properties, and functions. The field of research on mechanically bonded molecules appears to be in the midst of a renaissance, having reached a level of maturity where a wide array of motifs are readily accessible, as researchers increasingly turn their attention to potential applications and technologies while bringing countless interdisciplinary collaborators into the fold.

As mechanically bonded molecules become increasingly ubiquitous and mainstream in chemical research and beyond, so too does open-access publishing become increasingly important for maximizing accessibility to the field. Frontiers in Chemistry is a completely open-access venue with very limited coverage of this important research area. The goal of this research topic is to jump-start the topic of mechanically bonded molecules as a subject covered in open-access journals such as Frontiers in Chemistry. We aim to collect a diverse array of manuscripts in order to showcase the diversity of the field in an open-access format and attract more mechanical bond researchers to open-access publishing options.

Themes to be addressed may include, but are not limited to:

• Synthesis of new rotaxanes, catenanes, and other mechanically bonded molecules
• Applications of rotaxanes, catenanes, and other mechanically bonded molecules
• Theory and modelling of rotaxanes, catenanes, and other mechanically bonded molecules
• Mechanically interlocked coordination polymers and crystalline networks
• Molecular switches and machines with mechanical bonds
• Polyrotaxanes and slide-ring materials

Keywords: catenanes, rotaxanes, chemical topology, molecular machines, polyrotaxanes, polycatenanes

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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