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Updated: Dec 6, 2025

Synthesis of a Water-soluble Metal–Organic Complex Array
Published on: October 8, 2016
A Promising Approach for Controlling the Second Coordination Sphere of Biomimetic Metal Complexes: Encapsulation in a
Tongtong Zhang1, Laurent Le Corre1, Olivia Reinaud1
1Université de Paris, UMR 8601, CNRS, 45 rue des Saints Pères, 75006, Paris, France.
Abstract:
The design of biomimetic models of metalloenzymes needs to take into account many factors and is therefore a challenging task. We propose in this work an original strategy to control the second coordination sphere of a metal centre and its distal environment. A biomimetic complex, reproducing the first coordination sphere, is encapsulated in a self-assembled hydrogen-bonded capsule. The cationic complex is co-encapsulated with its counter-anion or with solvent molecules. The capsule is dynamic, allowing a fast in/out exchange of the co-encapsulated species. It also provides both a hydrogen-bonding site in the second coordination sphere and a source of proton as it can be deprotonated in the presence of the complex, providing a globally neutral host-guest assembly. This simple and broad scope strategy is unprecedented in biomimetic studies. The approach appears to be a very promising method for the stabilisation of reactive species and for the study of their reactivity.
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