Chiral Induction in a Self-Assembled Pd₄ Coordination Cage with Chiral Guests

The dynamic interplay of coordination bonds within metal-organic cages offers a unique avenue for structural evolution in response to external stimuli, presenting a promising strategy for the construction of chiral assemblies. This adaptability is crucial for the selective synthesis of homochiral assemblies and advancement of asymmetric catalysis. In this study, we report the self-assembly of an achiral square-planar Pd(II) acceptor with a C₂-symmetric tetrapyridyl donor resulted in the formation of a racemic mixture of the chiral octahedral cage Pd₄L₂. The existence of this racemic mixture was confirmed using circular dichroism spectroscopy as well as single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. We encoded chiral information into the asymmetric cavity of the cage by encapsulating chiral aromatic guests through efficient π-π stacking and hydrophobic interactions in aqueous media. The inclusion of a chiral guest induces a preference for one enantiomeric conformation of the cage over the other, effectively shifting the equilibrium towards a single, enantiopure host-guest complex. While the concept of chiral guest recognition by a chiral host is well-established, this work constitutes a remarkable example of guest-mediated chirality transfer leading to the formation of a single enantiopure coordination complex from achiral building blocks.