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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Heterogeneous Removal of Water-Soluble Ruthenium Olefin Metathesis Catalyst from Aqueous Media Via Host-Guest Interaction
Published on: August 23, 2018
Terpyridine-based metallo-organic cages and supramolecular gelation by coordination-driven self-assembly and
Die Liu1, Haisheng Liu, Bo Song
1Department of Organic and Polymer Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan-410083, China. chemwps@csu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Host-guest complexation based on terpyridine (tpy) three-dimensional (3D) metallo-cages has received less attention due to the complicated structure and solubility issues. Herein, a three-armed metallo-organic ligand (L) was synthesized via three 120°-bent bis-tpy groups as a rigid tetrakis-tpy core, which possesses one benzo-21-crown-7 (B21C7) for further host-guest interaction. The metallo-organic cages [M3L2] with molecular weights up to 13 000 Da and giant cavities were prepared in near-quantitative yield by self-assembly of L with metal ions, such as Zn2+ and Fe2+. The 3D metallo-supramolecules were characterized and their formation was supported by NMR, DOSY, ESI-MS and TEM. Hosts [M3L2] were threaded through a difunctional alkylammonium salt by host-guest interactions to polymerize, and subsequently generate novel metallo-gels between [Zn3L2] and bis-ammonium salt (N2).
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