Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.130, No.10, 2950-2951, 2008
Self-assembly of a 3-D triply interlocked chiral [2]catenane
A tripodal cyclotriveratrylene-based ligand with chelating 2,2'-bipyridine arms self-assembles with either Zn(NO3)(2) or Co(NO3)(2) to give 3-D trigonal bipyramidal [M3L2] cage assemblies. These cages triply interlock forming [2]catenane species that have been characterized by mass spectrometry and, in the case of the Zn(II) complex, by X-ray crystallography.