Supramolecular Archimedean Cages Assembled with 72 Hydrogen Bonds
- Milano
Self-assembly of multiple components into well-defined and predictable structures remains one of the foremost challenges in chemistry. Here, we report on the rational design of a supramolecular cage assembled from 20 ions of three distinct species through 72 hydrogen bonds. The cage is constructed from two kinds of hexagonal molecular tiles, a tris(guanidinium)nitrate cluster and a hexa(4-sulfonatophenyl)benzene, joined at their edges through complementary and metrically matched N-H {hor_ellipsis} O-S hydrogen bonds to form a truncated octahedron, one of the Archimedean polyhedra. The truncated octahedron, with an interior volume of 2200 cubic angstroms, serves as the composite building unit of a body-centered cubic zeolite-like framework, which exhibits an ability to encapsulate a wide range of differently charged species, including organic molecules, transition metal complexes, and 'ship-in-a-bottle' nanoclusters not observed otherwise.
- Research Organization:
- Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- FOREIGNNSFOTHER
- OSTI ID:
- 1025633
- Journal Information:
- Science, Journal Name: Science Journal Issue: 07, 2011 Vol. 333; ISSN 0193-4511; ISSN SCEHDK
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- ENGLISH