Unbiased Rotational Motions of an Ellipsoidal Guest in a Tight Yet Pliable Host

In the design of machinery such as steel bearings, a fundamental understanding of material characteristics provides an indispensable basis for the design. Although hydrocarbon cycloarylenes have started to be used for providing unique supramolecular bearings with anomalous dynamic behaviors, their fundamental understanding is immature. A unique property of the cycloarylene host is now reported: the cyclic host is so pliable that it tracks the orientational changes of the ellipsoidal guest, that is, C₇₀ fullerene. Unique structures of the complex were revealed by spectroscopic and crystallographic analyses, and additional theoretical investigations deepened our understanding by revealing the structural changes associated with unbiased rotational motions.