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Updated: Dec 9, 2025

Development of Heterogeneous Enantioselective Catalysts using Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks MOFs
Published on: January 17, 2020
Supramolecular Catalysis of the oxa-Pictet-Spengler Reaction with an Endohedrally Functionalized Self-Assembled Cage
Courtney Ngai1, Colomba M Sanchez-Marsetti1, W Hill Harman1
1Department of Chemistry and the UCR Center for Catalysis, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA.
Abstract:
An endohedrally functionalized self-assembled Fe4 L6 cage complex can catalyze oxa-Pictet-Spengler cyclizations of tryptophols and various aldehyde derivatives, showing strong rate accelerations and size-selectivity. Selective molecular recognition of substrates controls the reactivity, and the cage is capable of binding and activating multiple different species along the multistep reaction pathway. The combination of a functionalized active site, size-selective reactivity, and multistep activation, all from a single host molecule, illustrates the biomimetic nature of the catalysis.
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