Designing narcissistic self-sorting terpyridine moieties with high coordination selectivity for complex...

Area of Science:

• Supramolecular Chemistry
• Coordination Chemistry
• Materials Science

Background:

• Coordination-driven self-assembly is key for creating metallosupramolecules.
• Designing ligands for selective self-assembly remains a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design novel ortho-modified terpyridine ligands for controlled metallosupramolecular assembly.
• To investigate the self-assembly behavior of resulting coordination complexes and their hierarchical organization.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of ortho-modified terpyridine ligands.
• Formation of zinc(II) coordination complexes.
• Characterization of self-sorting behavior and supramolecular structures.
• Construction of hexagonal metallosupramolecules and their hierarchical assembly.

Main Results:

• Two ortho-modified terpyridine ligands were synthesized, forming head-to-tail Zn(II) complexes.
• The complexes exhibited narcissistic self-sorting.
• Sterically congested multitopic ligands were derived, leading to hexagonal metallosupramolecules.
• Hexagonal macrocycles hierarchically self-assembled into giant cyclic nanostructures via edge-to-edge stacking.

Conclusions:

• The designed dissymmetrical coordination moieties demonstrate remarkable self-assembly selectivity and specificity.
• This approach enables the construction of complex, hierarchically organized metallosupramolecular nanostructures.
• The findings offer new strategies for designing functional metallosupramolecular systems.