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The construction of sophisticated, high-nuclearity polyhedral cages is an attractive yet challenging task in supramolecular chemistry. Herein we report the anion-coordination-driven assembly (ACDA) of a series of A2nL3n architectures ("A" denotes anion, L is ligand, n = 1, 2, 4) with a biphenylene-spaced bis-bis(urea) ligand including triple helicate A2L3 (H), tetrahedron A4L6 (T), and the octanuclear, bicapped trigonal antiprism (or parallelepiped) A8L12 (P). Among them, P is held by 96 hydrogen bonds, the largest number ever reported in a discrete polyhedron, and encapsulates multiple guests (three tetramethylammonium cations) in three compartments. Remarkably, multiple reversible transformations of these dynamic assemblies have been realized by alternation of the template guest, solvent, and concentration. Furthermore, a chiral ligand (L2S) with carbon stereocenters at both termini of the bis-bis(urea) backbone was designed and assembled with phosphate to form the enantio-pure triple helicate or tetrahedron. The chiral amplification effect in the tetrahedral complex is significantly larger than that in the triple helicate as a function of the point chirality.

Herein we report an unprecedented chiral induction of anion-coordination-driven tetrahedra (A4L6-type) by peripheral guests, S-, R-α-methylcholine and S-, R-β-methylcholine, which are bound along t...

Herein we report an unprecedented chiral induction of anion-coordination-driven tetrahedra (A

In contrast to the stable dinitrogen molecule, white phosphorus (P4) and yellow arsenic (As4) are very reactive allotropic modifications of these two heavier pnictogen elements, which has greatly hampered the study of their properties and applications. Thus, the safe storage and transport of them is imperative. Supramolecular caged structures are one of the most efficient approaches for the encapsulation and stabilization of reactive species; however, their use in the P4 and As4 chemistry is very rare. In the current work, we demonstrate a new design strategy for constructing finite cages and including guests based on anion coordination chemistry. The phosphate-coordination-based tetrahedral cages can readily accommodate the tetrahedral guests P4 and As4, which is facilitated by the shape and size complementarity as well as favorable σ–π and lone-pair−π interactions. Moreover, the latter case represents the first example of As4 inclusion in a well-defined tetrahedral cage.

Caged structures have found wide application in a variety of areas, including guest encapsulation and catalysis. Although metal-based cages have dominated the field, anion-coordination-based cages are emerging as a new type of supramolecular ensemble with interesting host–guest properties. In the current work, we report a C3-symmetric tris-bis(urea) ligand based on the 2,4,6-triphenyl-1,3,5-triazine spacer, which assembles with phosphate anions to form an A4L4-type (A = anion, L = ligand) tetrahedral cage, 3, with unusually high packing coefficients (up to 99.5% for the best substrate). Cage 3 is able to adjust its size and shape (from 136 to 216 A3) by bending of the triphenyltriazine plane. This allows it to accommodate relatively large guests. In the case of DABCO, inclusion within the cage allows the degree of methylation to be controlled and the monomethylated product to be isolated cleanly under conditions where mixtures of the mono- and dimethylated adduct are obtained in the absence of cage 3.

Potassium reduction of RZn(mu-I)2Li(OEt2)2 (R = [{(2,6-Pri2C6H3)N(Me)C}2CH]) affords the second compound with a Zn-Zn bond, RZn-ZnR. The air- and moisture-sensitive title compound was characterized by 1H NMR, elemental analyses, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The Zn-Zn bond was determined to be 2.3586(7) A; this value is only about 0.05 A longer than the Zn-Zn bond reported for Cp*Zn-ZnCp* (Cp* = C5Me5), the first reported compound with a Zn-Zn bond. In addition, density functional theory (DFT) computations on related model RZn-ZnR compounds provide insight into the intriguing Zn-Zn bond.

A new Mg-Mg-bonded compound stabilized by a doubly reduced alpha-diimine ligand, [K(THF)(3)](2)[LMg-MgL] (L = [(2,6-(i)Pr(2)C(6)H(3))NC(Me)](2)(2-)), has been synthesized and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and density functional theory analysis. The Mg-Mg bond length is 2.9370(18) A.

The zirconocene-complexed dibismuthene, Cp2Zr(BiR)2 (Cp = C5H5; R = C6H3-2,6-Mes2), was prepared by the reaction of sodium metal with Cp2ZrCl2 and RBiCl2. The air- and moisture-sensitive dark reddish/brown compound is the first organometallic compound containing Bi-Zr bonds and the only example of a ZrBi2 ring. Moreover, our computations on associated model systems offer insight into the nature of the interaction of the heaviest dipnictene with a metallocene center.