Subunits for Spheroid Design and Self-Assembly

To construct a spherical shell using a single subunit, n= 1, the only structure obtainable is S. As outlined above, it is impossible to construct a spherical molecular host using a single chemical entity, and therefore S does not represent a self-assembled spherical framework. 

n = 2 represents the minimum number of subunits which may be used to construct a spherical molecular host via self-assembly. 

For n= 4, positioning four points along the surface of a sphere such that they lie a maximum distance from each other places the points at the vertices of a tetrahedron (Fig. 9.7a). 

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