A 5.3 nm giant metal-organic cage and its supramolecular gel for the formation of dye molecular ionic pairs

Kaixiu Li; Jian Huang; Shi-Cheng Wang; Zhengguang Li; Jun Wang; Yiming Li; Mingzhao Chen; Yi-Tsu Chan; Die Liu; Pingshan Wang

doi:10.1039/d3dt00189j

A 5.3 nm giant metal-organic cage and its supramolecular gel for the formation of dye molecular ionic pairs

Dalton Trans. 2023 Apr 11;52(15):4980-4984. doi: 10.1039/d3dt00189j.

Authors

Kaixiu Li¹, Jian Huang¹, Shi-Cheng Wang², Zhengguang Li¹, Jun Wang³, Yiming Li¹, Mingzhao Chen³, Yi-Tsu Chan², Die Liu¹, Pingshan Wang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Organic and Polymer Chemistry, Hunan Key Laboratory of Micro & Nano Materials Interface Science, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, China. [email protected].
² Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
³ Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay Area, Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China.

PMID: 36951449
DOI: 10.1039/d3dt00189j

Abstract

A terpyridine-based supramolecular cage was successfully synthesized by the self-assembly of a hexapodal metal-organic ligand with Zn²⁺. This metallo-cage exhibited two large parallel planes on the top and bottom with diameters close to 6 nm and a face-to-face distance close to 3.5 nm, thus possessing a large cavity. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), two-dimensional nuclear Overhauser (2D-NOESY), and diffusion-ordered (DOSY) spectroscopies as well as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements, unambiguously supported the formation of a supramolecular cage. Furthermore, the corresponding metal-organic gel was felicitously prepared in CH₃CN/H₂O and displayed good adsorption performance for dye molecules.