In recent years the development of interlocked structures has been of significant importance for the expansion of molecular machines. In particular those that incorporate the rotaxane architecture, so as to utilise the shuttling properties associated with the class of structure. The research described herein is of the synthesis of a new class of flavin based [2] rotaxanes, such that the flavin moiety acts as the rotaxane stoppers. The construction of the rotaxane threads from two modified flavin architectures are reported within. With the use of trifluoromethyl flavin and dimethoxy flavin units, the symmetric bis-trifluoromethyl-flavin stoppered axle, and the asymmetric trifluoromethyl-dimethoxy flavin stoppered axle units were synthesised, and the corresponding interlocked [2] rotaxane structures are described. The expectation is that these systems will lead to the development of new flavin based molecular machines, by the virtue of the redox induced shuttling properties that are inherent in these types of systems
