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Abstract
The architecture of self-assembled host molecules can profoundly affect the properties of the encapsulated guests. For example, rigid capsules with small windows can efficiently protect their contents from the environment; in contrast, tube-shaped, flexible hosts with large openings and an easily accessible cavity are ideally suited for catalysis. Here, we report a “Janus” nature of a Pd6L4 coordination cage previously reported to tube isomer (T). We show that upon encapsulating various tetrahedrally shaped guests, T can reconfigure into a capsule-shaped host (C) in a quantitative yield. Extracting the guest affords the empty C, which is metastable and spontaneously relaxes to T, and the T⇄C interconversion can be repeated for multiple cycles. Reversible toggling between two vastly different isomers paves the way towards controlling functional properties of coordination cages “on demand”.
Supplementary materials
Title
SI file
Description
General remarks; Synthesis and NMR characterization of cage Pd6L4 (L = TImB); VT 1H NMR spectroscopy of the empty cage; Preparation and NMR characterization of inclusion complexes with guests; Tuning the thermodynamic landscape of the cage using guests 1–4; NMR characterization of guest Z-5 encapsulated within T/C; NMR characterization of guest 6 encapsulated within T/C; NMR characterization of guest 7 encapsulated within T/C; NMR characterization of inclusion complex of 8 within C; NMR characterization of inclusion complex of 9 within C; NMR characterization of inclusion complex of 10 within C; NMR characterization of guest 11 encapsulated within T/C; NMR characterization of guest 12 encapsulated within T/C; Preparation and NMR characterization of cage C; Reversible transformations between cage isomers; Attempts to synthesize cage Pd6L'4 (L' = TImT); X-ray data collection and structure refinement; DFT calculations; Supporting references.
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