Design and synthesis of aryl-functionalized carbazole-based porous coordination cages

A subset of coordination cages have garnered considerable recent attention for their potential permanent porosity in the solid state. Herein, we report a series of functionalized carbazole-based cages of the structure type M₁₂(R-cdc)₁₂ (M = Cr, Cu, Mo) where the functional groups include a range of aromatic substituents. Single-crystal X-ray structure determinations reveal a variety of intercage interactions in these materials, largely governed by pi-pi stacking. Density functional theory for a subset of these cages was used to confirm that the nature of the increased stability of aryl-functionalized cages is a result of inter-cage ligand interactions.