Two families of multimetallic complexes with defined cavities - so-called caviplexes - bearing the same class of macrocyclic NHC-ligand platform are presented. Depending on the metal used, the ligand is able to adopt various shapes, thus creating different secondary coordination spheres. In case of square-planarly coordinating metals, exemplarily shown for Ni(II), a dinuclear saddle-shaped complex is formed, which can recognize halides via encapsulation and formation of a supramolecular capsoplex. In case of linearly coordinating metals, shown for Ag(I) and Au(I), pillarplexes are formed. This highly interesting and robust compound class resembles the first tubular metal-organic cavitand system, which can be employed for supramolecular host-guest chemistry. In contrast to the known organic cavitand systems, the pillarplexes are intrinsically photoluminescent and their solubility can be easily tuned by simple anion exchange. Additionally, the tubular cavity is perfectly sized to exclusive host linear guest molecules, whereas six-membered aromatic groups are not incorporated.

Caviplexes: Metal-Organic platforms for supramolecular recognition

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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