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INTERLOCKED MOLECULES
Tangled tetrahedra
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. http://doi.org/f2cd3h
Web End =http://doi.org/f2cd3h (2013)
2013 WILEY
The challenge of making molecules with non-trivial topologies has proved to be a popular one over the past 50years or so. Two archetypal examples of such systems are catenanes compounds made up of two or more macrocyles that are held together simply by being mechanically interlocked
with one another and knots (molecular trefoils being the most common). Weaving and tying molecular strands into complex architectures not only produces eye-catching structures, but has also been used to make nanoscale machines and motors.
Now, a team based in Cambridge and Berlin, headed up by Christoph Schalley, Jonathan Nitschke and Jeremy Sanders, have studied a system in which six crown etherscan thread on to the edges of a metalorganic tetrahedron to produce an unusual [7]catenane one member of a new class of mechanically interlocked molecules. The central tetrahedral cage is pieced together from four Fe(ii) ions (these are the corners) and six identical rigid-rod organic ligands (the edges) that have an electron-poor aromatic group in the middle. The glue that holds these pieces together comes...