Affiliation:
1. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Department of Chemistry Fudan University 2005 Songhu Road Shanghai 200438 P. R. China
Abstract
AbstractIn this work, a noncoplanar terphenyl served as a building block to synthesize a novel 3,3′‐substituted bipyridyl ligand (L1) which further reacted with binuclear half‐sandwich units A/B, giving rise to two aesthetic 41 metalla‐knots in high yields via a coordination‐driven self‐assembly strategy. Furthermore, given the inherent compactness of the 41 metalla‐knots, it creates favorable conditions for the emergence of steric repulsion. We focused on progressively introducing nitrogen atoms featuring a lone pair of electrons (LPEs) into ligand L1 to manipulate the balance of H⋅⋅⋅H/LPEs⋅⋅⋅LPEs steric repulsion during the assembly process, ultimately achieving controlled assembly from 41 metalla‐knots to the pseudo‐Solomon link and then to molecular tweezer‐like assembly facilitated by stacking interactions. All the assemblies were well characterized by solution‐state NMR techniques, ESI‐TOF/MS, and single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction. The evolutionary process of the topological architectures is equivalent to visualizing the synergistic effect of steric hindrance and stacking interactions on structural assembly, providing a new avenue for achieving the controlled synthesis of different topologies.