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Updated: Mar 1, 2026

Design, Synthesis, and Photochemical Properties of Clickable Caged Compounds
Published on: October 15, 2019
Iodide-Selective Synthetic Ion Channels Based on Shape-Persistent Organic Cages
Bahiru Punja Benke1, Pulakesh Aich1, Younghoon Kim2
1Center for Self-assembly and Complexity (CSC), Institute for Basic Science (IBS) , Pohang 37673, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
We report here a synthetic ion channel developed from a shape-persistent porphyrin-based covalent organic cage. The cage was synthesized by employing a synthetically economical dynamic covalent chemistry (DCC) approach. The organic cage selectively transports biologically relevant iodide ions over other inorganic anions by a dehydration-driven, channel mechanism as evidenced by vesicle-based fluorescence assays and planar lipid bilayer-based single channel recordings. Furthermore, the organic cage appears to facilitate iodide transport across the membrane of a living cell, suggesting that the cage could be useful as a biological tool that may replace defective iodide channels in living systems.
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