A Supramolecular Cube

Figure 10.24 (a) Components of a supramolecular cube, (b) Synthesis of a supramolecular cube. 

Roche S et al (1998) Self-assembly of a supramolecular cube. Chem Commun 1681-1682... 

A highly original aim, synthesizing a supramolecular cube, was realized by Thomas and co-workers [13] who linked metal corners with bifunctional, rigid, linear spacers. The complete the metals coordination environment the corners were capped with [9]ane-S3 macrocycles. There is a central cavity but it is too small to encapsulate molecules of the size of proteins or genetic material. 

Self-assembly of a supramolecular cube, J. A. Thomas, S. Roche, C. Haslam, H. Adams and S. L. Heath Chem. Commun., 1998, 1681. 

In 1998, Jim Thomas and co-workers at the University of Sheffield, UK, set out to prepare a self-assembling supramolecular cube by a combination of linear spacers, which would provide the cube edges, and pyramidal corners, which would constitute the vertices. Deconstruction of a cubic figure in this way reveals immediately that a ratio of eight corners to 12 edges is needed (Figure 10.24). 

The self-assembly of the supramolecular cube 27 from 20 components has been reported." Using nitromethane as a non-co-ordinating solvent, [Ru([9]ane-S3)(dimethyl sulfoxide)Cl2J was treated with 4,4-bipyridine in an 8 12 (namely 2 3) ratio and the reaction was monitored by NMR spectroscopy. The proposed... 

One simple and elegant example of supramolecular self-assembly is the synthesis of a molecular cube by Jim Thomas from the University of Sheffield,... 

Figure 58 Representation of the supramolecular barrel 295 (a) and cube 296 (b) (M = Pd(NH2CH2CH2NH2) ). Reprinted with permission from Johannessen, S. C. Brisbois, R. G. Fischer, J. P. Grieco, P. A. Counterman, A. E, Clemmer, D. E. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 3818. 2001 American Chemical Society.

Of course an icosahedron is not the only three dimensional design that can form a capsule. MacGillivray and Atwood proposed a structural classification for supramolecular assemblies based on the five Platonic and 13 Archimedean solids [21], The Platonic solids, illustrated in Fig. 3.10, are the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron. 

---