Molecular planes and cages

MOLECULAR PLANES AND CAGES MADE FROM C FRAGMENTS... 

In this lecture, we built a variety of molecular worlds, chains, rings, cages, and molecular planes. All these were made from the LEGO fragments we generated from methane (Scheme 4.1), H3C, H2C, HC, and C. We witnessed the power of the concept, based on the following already familiar statements ... 

As the number of components that make up a finite molecular assembly increases so does the size and, generally, the complexity of the assembly. Thus, molecular assemblies with three, four, and five molecules as components may form 2D cyclic structures of increasing size in the form of trimers, tetramers, and pentamers, respectively (Scheme l).3a The components may also be arranged in three dimensions to form a cage. Notably, useful classifications of the structures of finite assemblies based on principles of plane (i.e. polygons) and solid geometry (i.e. polyhedra) have been recently discussed.4... 

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