the insulating effect of the macrocycle, which is able to block interactions with other molecules. Nanorecording In a nanorecording application, a certain rotaxane is deposited as a Langmuir–Blodgett film on ITO-coated glass. When a positive voltage is applied with the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope probe, the rotaxane rings in the tip area switch to a different part of the dumbbell and the resulting new conformation makes the molecules stick out 0.3 nanometer from the surface. This height difference is sufficient for a memory dot. It is not yet known how to erase such a nanorecording film. Nomenclature Accepted nomenclature is to designate the number of components of the rotaxane in brackets as a prefix. Therefore, the a rotaxane consisting of a single dumbbell-shaped axial molecule with a single macrocycle around its shaft is called a [2]rotaxane, and two cyanostar molecules around the central phosphate group of dialkylphosphate is a [3]rotaxane. See also Catenane Mechanically interlocked molecular architecture Molecular Borromean rings Molecular knots Polyrotaxane References Supramolecular chemistry Molecular electronics Nanoelectronics Organic semiconductors Molecular topology Articles containing video clips