A Fourfold Gold(I)-Aryl Macrocycle with Hyperbolic Geometry and its Reductive Elimination to a Carbon Nanoring Host

An ethylene glycol-decorated [6]cyclo-meta-phenylene (CMP) macrocycle was synthesized and utilized as a subunit to construct a fourfold Au^I ₂ -aryl metallacycle with an overall square arrangement. The corners consist of rigid dinuclear gold(I) complexes previously known to form only triangular metallacycles. The interplay between the conformational flexibility of the [6]CMP macrocycle and the rigid dinuclear gold(I) moieties enable the square geometry, as revealed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The formation of the gold complex shows size-selectivity compared to an alternative route using platinum(II) corner motifs. Upon reductive elimination, an all-organic ether-decorated carbon nanoring was obtained. Investigation as a host for the complexation of large guest molecules with a suitable convex π-surfaces was accomplished using isothermal NMR binding titrations. Association constants for [6]cycloparaphenylene ([6]CPP), [7]CPP, C₆₀ , and C₇₀ were determined.