Palladium-Mediated Catalysis Leads to Intramolecular Narcissistic Self-Sorting on a Cavitand Platform

Palladium-catalyzed aminocarbonylation reactions have been used to directly convert a tetraiodocavitand intermediate into the corresponding carboxamides and 2-ketocarboxamides. When complex mixtures of the amine reactants are employed in competition experiments using polar solvents, such as DMF, no "mixed" products possessing structurally different amide fragments are detected either by ¹H or ¹³C NMR. Only highly symmetrical cavitands are sorted out of a large number of potentially feasible products, which represents a rare example of intramolecular, narcissistic self-sorting. Our experimental results along with thermodynamic energy analysis suggest that the observed self-sorting is a symmetry-driven, kinetically controlled process.