Information motors -escaping detailed balance. For a molecular motor to operate continuously at non-equilibrium steady state it should be obvious that detailed balance must be broken the operation of a motor implies that there is net directional flux along a mechanical coordinate. For example, catenane 6 22 operates continuously to generate net motion of the small blue ring around the larger green ring by carrying out the linking/unlinking of the two compartments via two chemically distinct pathways; base-mediated Fmoc ester cleavage and Fmoc-ester formation from FmocCl. This corresponds to coupling of the reversible formation of the Fmoc ester, which acts as a gate to block mechanical motion, with the spontaneous conversion of FmocCl to dibenzofulvalene (5) and CO2 (Figure ).