Spontaneous Synchronization of Two Bistable Pyridine-Furan Nanosprings Connected by an Oligomeric Bridge

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Dec 19;14(1):3. doi: 10.3390/nano14010003.

Abstract

The intensive development of nanodevices acting as two-state systems has motivated the search for nanoscale molecular structures whose long-term conformational dynamics are similar to the dynamics of bistable mechanical systems such as Euler arches and Duffing oscillators. Collective synchrony in bistable dynamics of molecular-sized systems has attracted immense attention as a potential pathway to amplify the output signals of molecular nanodevices. Recently, pyridine-furan oligomers of helical shape that are a few nanometers in size and exhibit bistable dynamics similar to a Duffing oscillator have been identified through molecular dynamics simulations. In this article, we present the case of dynamical synchronization of these bistable systems. We show that two pyridine-furan springs connected by a rigid oligomeric bridge spontaneously synchronize vibrations and stochastic resonance enhances the synchronization effect.

Keywords: Duffing oscillators; bistability; computer simulations; nanomechanics; pyridine-furan oligomers; spontaneous synchronization.

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Design Center for Molecular Machines, Moscow, Russia, under the Business Contract 28/11-XΦ-28.11.2022 with N. N. Semenov Federal Research Center for Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences.