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Published on: September 28, 2016
From molecular tweezers to pliers: a significant enhancement of fullerene grasping capability
Mahboob Subhani1, Xinliang Liu1, Zhi Yu1
1College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, South Lushan Road, Changsha, Hunan 410083, China.
Abstract:
A molecular design leap from simple tweezers to precision pliers is achieved by substituting planar bisporphyrins with curved calixarenes. A series of pH-responsive cavitand hybrids that reversibly switch between vase and kite conformations has been synthesized. Host-guest experiments demonstrated that the rigid host 2a binds to C60 more strongly, whereas the flexible host 2b binds to C70 (2.47 × 105 M-1) with higher affinity. These are the highest binding constants reported to date for a supramolecular host-guest complex involving partial-wrapping fullerenes that can be subsequently released on demand.
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