A platinum turnstile with a palladium lock.

An organometallic molecular turnstile composed of a stator based on an α,ω-diphosphine bearing, in a symmetric fashion, the 2,6-pyridyl diamide moiety as a central tridentate chelating unit and a rotor composed of Pt(II) equipped with two pyridyl groups in trans configuration was designed. The switching between its open and closed states using Pd(II) was investigated both in solution and in the solid state.