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Design, Synthesis, and Photochemical Properties of Clickable Caged Compounds
Published on: October 15, 2019
A Visible-Light-Responsive Octahedral Cage for Efficient and Selective Cross-[2 + 2] Cycloadditions.
Rikuya Tanaka1, Hiroki Takezawa1, Makoto Fujita2,3
1Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwanoha 1, FS CREATION, 6-6-2 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-0882, Japan.
Researchers developed a visible-light-responsive cage for enhanced photoreactions. This cage enables selective cross-[2 + 2] cycloadditions of inert substrates using visible light, even catalytically.
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Area of Science:
- Supramolecular Chemistry
- Photochemistry
- Materials Science
Background:
- Host-guest complexation influences photoreaction selectivity by confining substrates.
- Previous hosts lacked visible-light absorption, necessitating UV-absorbing reactants.
- Standard M6L4 cages are effective hosts but lack photoactivity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design a visible-light-responsive M6L4 cage for photoreactions.
- To enable visible-light-induced cycloadditions of inert substrates.
- To achieve high stereo- and site-selectivity in photoreactions via confinement.
Main Methods:
- Development of a visible-light-responsive M6L4 octahedral cage.
- Incorporation of photoactive cyclometalated Pt(II) units at cage vertices.
- Utilizing the cage for visible-light-induced cross-[2 + 2] cycloadditions.
Main Results:
- The new cage retains encapsulation ability while responding to visible light.
- Efficient visible-light-induced cross-[2 + 2] cycloadditions of inert substrates were achieved.
- Perfect stereo- and site-selectivity was demonstrated due to substrate confinement.
- Catalytic selective cross-[2 + 2] cycloaddition was accomplished, a first for M6L4 cages.
Conclusions:
- Visible-light-responsive M6L4 cages can drive photoreactions with high selectivity.
- The photoactive Pt(II) units enable unprecedented visible-light-mediated transformations.
- This approach expands the scope of host-guest chemistry in photochemistry and catalysis.

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