Polyaromatic molecular peanuts

Mimicking biological structures such as fruits and seeds using molecules and molecular assemblies is a great synthetic challenge. Here we report peanut-shaped nanostructures comprising two fullerene molecules fully surrounded by a dumbbell-like polyaromatic shell. The shell derives from a molecular double capsule composed of four W-shaped polyaromatic ligands and three metal ions. Mixing the double capsule with various fullerenes (that is, C₆₀, C₇₀ and Sc₃N@C₈₀) gives rise to the artificial peanuts with lengths of ∼3 nm in quantitative yields through the release of the single metal ion. The rational use of both metal-ligand coordination bonds and aromatic-aromatic π-stacking interactions as orthogonal chemical glue is essential for the facile preparation of the multicomponent, biomimetic nanoarchitectures.