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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Light-driven Molecular Motors on Surfaces for Single Molecular Imaging
Published on: March 13, 2019
Motion of a rotatory molecular motor and the chemical reaction rate
Hiroshi Miki1, Masatoshi Sato, Mahito Kohmoto
1The Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8581, Japan.
Abstract:
We examine the dependence of the physical quantities of the rotatory molecular motor, such as the rotation velocity and the proton translocation rate, on the chemical reaction rate using the model based only on diffusion process. A peculiar behavior of proton translocation is found and the energy transduction efficiency of the motor protein is enhanced by this behavior. We give a natural explanation that this behavior is universal when certain inequalities between chemical reaction rates hold. That may give a clue to examine whether the motion of the molecular motor is dominated by diffusion process or not.
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