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Updated: Feb 15, 2026

Design, Synthesis, and Photochemical Properties of Clickable Caged Compounds
Published on: October 15, 2019
Template Synthesis of Three-Dimensional Hexakisimidazolium Cages
Li-Ying Sun1, Narayan Sinha2, Tao Yan1
1Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710127, P. R. China.
Abstract:
A procedure for the synthesis of three-dimensional hexakisimidazolium cage compounds has been developed. The reaction of the trigonal trisimidazolium salts H3 L(PF6 )3 , decorated with three N-olefinic pendants, and silver oxide yielded trinuclear trisilver(I) hexacarbene molecular cylinders of the type [Ag3 L2 ]3+ with the olefinic pendants from the two different tricarbene ligands arranged in three pairs. Subsequent UV irradiation gave three cyclobutane links between the two tris-NHC ligands in three [2+2] cycloaddition reactions, thereby generating a three-dimensional hexakis-NHC ligand. Removal of the metal ions resulted in the formation of three-dimensional hexakisimidazolium cages with a large internal cavity.
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