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Updated: Oct 16, 2025

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
Hollow and highly diastereoselective face-rotating polyhedra constructed through rationally engineered facial units
Xiao Tang1, Zhihao Li1, Haoliang Liu1
1State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surface, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology of Fujian Province, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy and Materials (iChEM), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University Xiamen 361005 P. R. China andrewsue@xmu.edu.cn ktan@xmu.edu.cn xcao@xmu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Molecular face-rotating polyhedra (FRP) exhibit complex stereochemistry, rendering it challenging to manipulate their assembly in a stereoselective manner. In our previous work, stereocontrolled FRP were gained at the cost of losing the confined inner space, which hampers their host-guest interactions and potential applications. Through a rational design approach, herein we demonstrate the successful construction of hollow FRP with high diastereoselectivity. Whereas the [4 + 4] imine condensation of meta-formyl substituted C 3h-symmetric TAT-m and C 3-symmetric Tri-NH2 led to the formation of all feasible FRP-12 diastereoisomers; the para-substituted constitutional isomer, TAT-p, exclusively assembled into a pair of homo-directional enantiomeric FRP-13-CCCC/AAAA with a cavity size larger than 600 Å3. Detailed structural characterizations and theoretical investigations revealed the thermodynamic landscape of FRP assembly can be effectively shaped by modulating the van der Waals repulsive forces among the facial building blocks. Our work provided a novel strategy towards stereospecific assembly of pure organic cages, opening up new opportunities for further applications of these chiral materials.
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